Connected Rewrite
by karin taicho
Summary: Pein decides to add new members to the Akatsuki by having eight more rings made as a duplicate of the Akatsuki's rings. When the rings and the Akatsuki enter the real world what will they do? How will they cope? SasoxOc, DeixOc, HidaxOc, ItaxOc, KakuxOc, KisaxOc, ZetsuxOc, and Tobi/MadaraxOc. Rewrite. Rated M for Hidan and cursing.
1. Introduction

Some of you guys might have noticed that this story was not on fanfiction anymore. That's because the admins took it down because of interactive stuff and other things like the text format at the beginning and end of each chapter. I am deeply disappointed as this was my favorite story that I wrote, but I'm not complaining. I think this is a good way for me to rewrite this story again and get more feedback, positive or negative. I might change the story a little, but so that it doesn't interfere with my sequel. Any suggestions are very. Flames are appreciated, but limit it. Don't be too mean to me :(

So, this is the first chapter!

* * *

Summary: Pein decides to add new members to the Akatsuki by having eight more rings made as a duplicate of the Akatsuki's rings. When the rings and the Akatsuki enter the real world what will they do? SasoxOc, DeixOc, HidaxOc, ItaxOc, KakuxOc, KisaxOc, ZetsuxOc, and Tobi/MadaraxOc.

* * *

Introduction

Pein smirked. It was finally done. He had created duplicate rings for the Akatsuki minus himself and Konan. The rings lay intricately on the tray in front of him. After a year, his hard work did pay off. He swirled his spinning chair around. "Konan, would you call a meeting for me?" he asked his secretary.

The blue haired woman nodded. "Of course, Nagato," she said. She would call him by Nagato when they were alone. She opened the door of the office and walked the winding hallway towards to the dining room where everyone was eating breakfast.

As she walked in, there was an awkward silence. She normally didn't have her breakfast with them, so it was an odd sight to see Konan in the room. Sasori and Deidara stopped arguing about art. Zetsu paused mid-bite. He was eating raw bacon. Hidan and Kakuzu were arguing about Kakuzu's money. Hidan was done spitting out his cereal and Kakuzu wiped his face in disgust. Itachi was just finishing up his cereal and Kisame was talking cooking smoked salmon for dinner. Tobi stopped moving.

Then, Tobi yelled, "Hello Konan-sempai! Tobi's a good boy!"

Konan sweat dropped and said, "Well good morning, Tobi. I know that you're a good boy." She turned to the other members. "Now, for the important matter, Pein is holding a meeting in an hour and you better be there. It's extremely important," the bluenette said and left leaving the Akatsuki in an equal amount of awkwardness than before.

When they were sure she left, Hidan screamed, "What the fuck is wrong with him? We just had a meeting fucking yesterday!"

"I don't really care," said Sasori. His eyes had a bored expression which really did show that he didn't give a damn.

"Well, you aren't supposed to give a fuck, puppet boy! You have no fucking emotions!" yelled Hidan. Sasori maintained that bored expression only twitching slightly at his mistake.

"I'm not a puppet anymore, remember? Itachi and Kakuzu fucking revived me," he said giving a glare at the said men irritated that we was a human again.

"Sasori no Danna, don't you think we have to get ready for the meeting, un?" asked the blonde terrorist, Deidara.

"Whatever," Sasori said as he walked with Deidara to their room.

Tobi bounced up and ran after them saying, "Deidara-sempai, wait for Tobi!"

"Damn that puppet boy," muttered Hidan as he walked with Kakuzu to their room which left Zetsu, Itachi, and Kisame staring blankly at the hallway. The half-empty bowls of cereal lay forgotten.

"Well, that was awkward."

* * *

Later

Everyone went inside the meeting room. Ten comfy chairs were neatly placed around a rectangular mahogany table. The two chairs on the ends of the table were Pein's and Konan's.

When everyone sat down, Pein cleared his throat. "Everyone is in here for an important reason. As you all know, the Akatsuki is a small group with only ten members," Pein started while looking at Tobi, who was fidgeting in his chair. "This is why we you are here. We need more recruits and you will find them," he said as he pulled out the eight duplicate rings. Some members looked confused, while others were emotionless, and of course, there's Hidan.

"What the fuck is with those rings? And why do we have to find recruits? Isn't that your fucking job?" he yelled. Kakuzu face palmed at his teammates lack of respect and stupidity.

"Silence," said Pein holding a hand out. "We will use these rings to give any person membership into Akatsuki. Once bestowed upon a person, they will receive all of your powers except your chakra control. That is why you must find people with a lot of chakra," Pein explained.

Sasori, Itachi, and Kakuzu, for once looked interested, but then Kakuzu started to frown. "If we have new members, don't we have to pay more?" Kakuzu asked. Everyone face palmed at this.

Hidan said, "You mother fucking cheap asshole, of course we have to fucking pay more money! I'm leaving!" he said as he grabbed a ring from Pein's tray and walked out with Kakuzu, who was mentally calculating the money needed to make the rings and for the extra Akatsuki clothes and nail polish.

"Sheesh, un. Can't he be a little nicer? He won't find a recruit like that, un," said Deidara, taking a ring, making sure not to let his hand mouth eat it. It almost happened the first time he got his ring, he almost swallowed it. He didn't really feel like getting a new recruit, but he had no choice.

"Hn," Itachi said as he and Kisame grabbed a ring each and walked out, Kisame saddened that he can't cook his salmon.

"Peace out," Kisame waved unenthusiastically.

Zetsu said, "Let's **go**," after taking a ring from Pein. He disappeared into the floor leaving Deidara grossed out. He wasn't really fond of the cannibal. At least, not after he appeared in his bedroom hanging over his bed with drool splashing onto his face. Deidara spent the whole week locked in the bathroom with Hidan angry at Deidara for taking ritual area. We all know there wasn't a good outcome.

Sasori simply grabbed a ring and walked out while Deidara walked behind him. Tobi grabbed a ring and was going to skip after "Deidara-sempai," but Pein stopped him.

"Come back here, Tobi," the leader said.

"Yes, Tobi's a good boy!" he said as he bounded towards the carrot top and the

bluenette.

Pein frowned, "You can stop that, Madara. No one else's here."

"That's right, Madara, Nagato's right. You shouldn't be stuffed in that mask for long. It cuts off your circulation," Konan pointed out.

Tobi stopped and took off his mask revealing Uchiha Madara. He scoffed in a deep voice unlike Tobi's. "Why did I have to choose this stupid personality? I feel retarded. What am I here for?" Madara asked.

"You need to be careful. It's very likely that your mask will fall off at any given time when you're outside. We can't have that risk," Pein said.

"Yeah, Yeah, Nagato-chan," he said. "And how many years has it been since I removed my mask outside of this base?"

Pein twitched and said, "You may leave now."

"I take orders from nobody," Madara sang as he turned around. He watched as Madara put on his mask and started skipping off like an idiot, but not before cursing himself for doing this.

"I hope nothing bad happens."

* * *

Outside

Hidan and the other members minus Pein and Konan were in a group running towards the same place. There was a bunch of high power chakra and there were eight of them, so they figured that it would be easier to be in a group. "One for each," as Kakuzu said.

Smirking, they continued running and didn't even notice the ANBU following close behind. When they got to the point, they found out that they couldn't locate the chakra anymore. The connection was cut.

"Where the fuck are the eight people? If they don't come out, I'll fucking sacrifice them to Jashin-sama."

"Time is money, we have to look fast. We don't have time to care about your fake god."

"What the fuck is wrong with you? Jashin-sama is real and one day he'll ask me to sacrifice you!"

"Hn."

"I am getting impatient here."

"When are they coming, un?"

"I want to eat someone."

"Bored as hell."

"Tobi's a good boy! He'll wait!"

"Shut up, un!" (I think that you guys can guess who said each thing. It's kind of obvious.)

Then, the ANBU made their move. Caught by surprise, the Akatsuki moved into a battle stance. They were too busy trying to locate the chakra blast they felt before. They didn't even notice the advanced ninjas sneaking up on them.

"First, the chakra people are gone and now there's fucking ANBU. How bad is this fucking day going to be?" asked Hidan with a shaking fist.

Deidara started to make his explosive clay. Sasori took out his third Kazekage puppet. Hidan already had his scythe and Kisame had Samehada. Itachi activated the Mangekyou Sharingan. 'Tobi' had his sharingan activated as well.

As the ANBU attacked the Akatsuki, the floor surrounding them was covered with markings. A black portal opened up underneath them and they fell in. Inside, their duplicate rings fell out of their pockets and into the darkness along with them.

* * *

I know that this is a short chapter. My introductions are normally a lot shorter compared to other chapters. Please review! It would brighten my day considerably. Expect a somewhat weekly update since I kept my old files. Also, I'm putting Connected Shippuden on hiatus until I'm done with this.

Over and Out, Karin Taicho!


	2. Into the Real World We Go!

Hey guys . . .

I just finished this yesterday and wanted to post it up today. I'm going to be working pretty slowly for a while because I just found our that my old Spanish teacher passed away on Friday. R.I.P. Ms. Rennebohm. You will never be forgotten :'(. I'm really depressed, now.

Enjoy the story. I made a lot of changes and there's a new OC, Emi Summers.

* * *

Hikari's POV

Rita and I had just stepped into school. After a summer full of reading Naruto mangas, we finally had to go to the dreaded institution.

I did, however wonder how it was. My other roomie Emi told us scary things. Seniors would make fun of you and Sophomores would get into fights with the Freshmen. Rita told me that it wouldn't matter.

Since we were incoming freshmen, we had a little trouble finding our way, mainly because we were an hour late. The building was big. It was about five stories high and very wide. There was a sign outside which read, "Long Brook High School." (A/N: It's just a name I made up)

I sighed as Rita and I entered the building. Emi went to school early and Rita wasn't even awake yet. She had overslept and spent the past thirty minutes scrambling to get her stuff. She was still grumbling on about school and waking up early that she didn't even notice that we were lost. That's when I stopped suddenly when I realized just that. Rita looked at me a little concerned.

"What's wrong, Hika-chan?" Rita asked. Since we were best friends, Rita could call me Hika-chan and I will call her Ri-chan. That was about six years ago when I met her.

"Well, we are kind of lost right now, right?" I asked my purple-haired friend.

"Oh shit, I just noticed that," she said scratching the back of her head nervously. I sighed as we continued searching aimlessly, passing by many lockers and rooms, too much to even count. When we reached the other side of the school, we heard a voice.

"You lost?"

We turned around to see a girl with long black hair with the ends dyed blue. She had tanned skin and was a little shorter than Rita. She had a bored expression on her face. I stiffened. Was this a Senior?

"Yeah, what about it?" Rita asked.

"Rita, stop being mean! D-don't mind my friend. I'm Hi-Hikari Thompson and we are lost. We need t-to find the office to get our s-schedules," I stuttered feeling nervous.

The girl turned around and said, "Follow me." She walked the other way throughout the hallway we were on. We walked up the stairs and made a right until we saw the office.

Before we went in, I turned to see the girl and said, "Thank you!"

"It's Eiko," the girl said dismissively as she walked the other way, probably to her own class. She had to be older than us. She didn't seem like a Senior, though, or at least what my friend Emi told me.

Rita blinked as we entered the office. Papers lay scattered on the floor and I met a very grumpy principal. He was bald and had nerdy glasses that were thicker than an inch. There was a mole sticking out from the side of his face, which made Rita scrunch her face up in disgust. (A/N: No offense to anybody)

"May I ask why you two are roaming around the halls?" he asked in his raspy tone.

"I-I'm sorry, b-but me and friend Rita were late today," I stuttered. I was generally shy to anyone I met, but this man was pretty scary. I remember the orientation for this school where his voice boomed loudly telling everyone to "shut up."

"Well don't be late again," he said grumpily as he handed us our schedules.

Rita mumbled, "Fatass," as she took her schedule. I laughed nervously as we walked out of the office.

I looked down on my schedule. First was Art, then Biology, then English and lunch. After that was Algebra, then Spanish 1, and then Gym. I also found that Rita had the same schedule as me. I couldn't wait for my first day of high school. Maybe it wasn't as bad as it seems.

...

I could've waited my whole life if I wanted to. High school was terrible. The art teacher basically gave us a lecture on being late after we walked in. The English teacher also gave a lecture while the Bio teacher was fine. My Algebra teacher gave us two pages of homework already while the Spanish teacher did nothing. The gym teacher was crazy as he made us run ten laps around a football field. He reminded me of Might Gai from Naruto.

It turns out, Emi _was_ right. The Sophomores and Seniors were very mean. Some came to scorn at my clothing, saying it was a pile of trash. I remember crying a little, telling myself that I had to be strong, but I couldn't. I couldn't stand up for my own self. Luckily, Rita intervened and drove off the Sophomores, who were a little scared of her. She was ruthless, at times, and headstrong. She never wanted her friends to get hurt. I wanted to be like that, too, but I couldn't bring myself to be anything more than a small, timid girl.

As for the Juniors, they were okay. Emi said that Junior year was busy for all of them and they had less time to kick Freshmen out of their way. Some Juniors were even nice to us. Maybe that Eiko girl was a Junior. Maybe.

Rita dragged herself behind me as we were walking home muttering curses about the gym teacher and the sophomore girls. As we crossed the street, I quickly caught sight of the girl we saw this morning. Waving, I ran towards her. "Eiko!" The said girl turned towards me with a bored expression.

"Hey, it's you from earlier," she said, not sounding any more excited than she shown on her face.

"Yup! S-so, where do you live?" I asked trying to get to know someone better. Rita wasn't only my best friend, but one of my only friends, a select few, not because I was picky, but because I wasn't popular.

I was the timid girl who people only went to for answers and Rita was the bad girl who everybody was afraid of. Emi was the withdrawn, but curious girl and people made fun of her because she was an orphan and poor. In fact, she actually a really outgoing girl once you got to know her, but she was shy to people she didn't know. We all were orphans.

My father and mother died in a war when I was ten. Rita's mother passed away after childbirth and she ran away from her father. Emi's father died before she was born in a car accident and her mother filled herself with drugs, passing away when she was six.

Emi was a blonde girl with beautiful long hair and cerulean blue eyes. She didn't remember much about her past at all. She met Rita after her mother died in the hospital after she lost her memories. At least, she thought so. That was what the nurses told her.

"At Cherry Blossom Street," she replied. I looked generally surprised at this. She lived in the same block as Rita, Emi, and I.

"R-really? I live there, too!" I exclaimed.

"Oh, that's cool," she said in a bored tone. I looked a little saddened at her sarcasm.

"A-anyways, w-what year are you in?"

"Senior year."

"A-are you in a team?"

"No."

"What's your favorite anime?"

"Naruto." I love Naruto, especially the Akatsuki and Sasori no Danna as well. I blushed a little when I thought of him. If only he was real.

"Favorite Akatsuki member?"

The black haired girl sighed. "Can you please stop asking me so many questions? It's annoying. And do you do this to everyone you meet?" she asked.

I gasped and looked at her tears about to fall. I hate this! I'm always easily hurt by everything, so weak! I bit my lip and turned around shaking. The tan girl looked generally surprised to see my reaction. It's not my fault that I didn't have many friends growing up, but at least I tried. I should have expected this from a Senior.

Rita saw the look on my face and said, "Listen Eiko, I don't know what your problem is, but don't insult Hikari like that ever. Just because she's annoying sometimes doesn't mean that she is always this way. You don't even know why she's asking you all these questions."

I smiled a little at Rita's reaction. She was always like a big sister to me and always protected me.

The older girl looked impressed with Rita's comment and said, "You know what? I like you. You got some spunk and would always stand up for your friends. Kind of reminds me of myself."

"Yeah, whatever," was Rita's reply.

"You two seem cool enough. You guys wanna come with me to the mall later?" she asked.

I immediately looked at Eiko in surprise. Her reaction just changed. "You mean it?"

Eiko nodded, "I wouldn't say anything if I didn't mean it. It would be a waste of breath."

I squealed and said, "We're going to the mall! It has been a while since we've been there, ne Ri-chan?"

"Yeah, whatever," Rita said as they neared our house. "Can we bring a friend? She lives with us."

"Sure. I'll see you guys on Saturday at eight right outside where I live. That fine with you?" Eiko asked.

"You bet!" said Rita flashing her hundred-watt smile. She had been pretty excited about going to the mall and had wanted to get this Akatsuki ring at the mall. Maybe she would get it.

From that day on, Eiko, Rita, and I started walking home together whilst talking. Emi got to meet her, too and got along well with her. I found out that Eiko was a dedicated Akatsuki fan and that Zetsu was her favorite. Zetsu normally creeped me out, but he is all right.

Then came Saturday where we took Eiko's car (she's 18) to the mall. Of course, all of us girls were somewhat of a shopoholic and bought all the clothes we could get our hands on. Not that we were greedy, we have never went shopping for a long long long while. Emphasis on the long.

Then, after hours of running around, trying on clothes, and buying them, then we decided that we should take a look at the antique store just to take a look.

Old pieces of pottery and necklaces and ruins were found in the store, Rita even picked up a Jashinist necklace, in which she said, "Oh my Jashin! Jashinism is real!" Emi laughed. Since Rita was a violent fan of Hidan, she always had been wondering if Jashinism was real and read a little excerpt on Jashinism on the mini board.

Eiko looked a little interested as she saw some ancient scrolls with poetry written on them. She had told us that she enjoyed writing haikus in her free time and got the inspiration from Zetsu. She grabbed some scrolls which she found interesting.

Emi was looking at the necklaces in the corner of the store scrutinizing every detail possible.

I had been looking at some mini statues from China and was delighted to see a small dragon statue. I happily grabbed it off the shelf not caring how much it cost. Not like I didn't care, I really wanted it.

However, at the back was a display case of all of the Akatsuki rings. (A/N- Even I wonder why that's at an antique shop. Sigh. Me and my brain.) Akatsuki rings at an antique shop? How random. Why would there be those at an antique shop?

My face lighted up when she saw this. I immediately went to Emi, Eiko and Rita who were concentrated on crystal balls to tell them. I couldn't contain my happiness. After months of trying to get my hands on one, I got lucky.

"Guys, you want to see this," I said as I pushed them to the display case. Eiko and Rita had a questioning look as they walked towards the back of the store. However, when they saw the rings, Rita and Eiko had the same thought. 'I want one.'

"Oh my Jashin," Rita said as she looked at it. It was all of the Akatsuki rings and it cost about fifteen dollars each.

"It looks real," said Eiko.

"Wow," Emi muttered. "They do look nice. Like the real deal. I wonder where they found it."

"That's what everybody wonders," mumbled Rita as she looked at the ring that said "san." It was Hidan's ring.

"Guys, we don't have much money left, so we can totally buy each of us one ring," I said.

Emi smiled sadly. "No, I don't really want one. They look nice, though."

I frowned, but I called the sales clerk over who had a bored expression on his face. I frowned at that expression.

"You want this?" he asked not giving a damn.

"No shit, we want a dinosaur," Eiko said sarcastically. Rita and Emi snickered.

The sales clerk opened the display case and asked "Which one do you guys want?" impatiently although not even a second had passed.

We pointed at the ones that said, "Gai", "San", and "Gyoku" for our favorite character. For some odd reason, there were two rings with gyoku on it (which meant "jewel".) After we bought our rings, we put them on. Eiko slipped the Gai ring on her right pinky. Rita out the San ring on her left index finger and I put my Gyoku ring on my left thumb symbolizing our favorite characters' ring position. I didn't realize the odd tingling sensation that I felt when I put the rings on. None of us realized that we just inherited some of our favorite characters' powers and Emi felt weird after we put on the rings. Maybe she wanted one herself.

. . . . . . . . . .

Monday was a weird day. First, I grew angry for the first time in a while and second, well, you have to hear me explain it.

What happened was that a stupid Senior who was in our English class (because she was stupid) called Rita a slut and I grew angry. I didn't really know what happened, but all I knew was that I wanted something to hit her head just to shut her up as she was talking to her friends about the retarded Freshmen. The bell rang and we all walked inside. She pushed girl after another girl out of her way and she sat down in the front row. In a flash of anger, my finger twitched and an eraser hit her square in the head.

The class burst out laughing, including me, but it didn't take long for me to find out that I controlled it because I saw the eraser move on its own. I looked down to see what looked like blue chakra strings. I had chakra strings.

I had chakra strings! I smirked evilly as I attached some to a pencil and wrote "I'm a slut" on a post it. I forced both the pencil and note to hit her on the head. The girl's face was priceless and she growled and looked across the class room.

Rita and I choked back on our laughter at the now steaming girl who screamed, "Who did that?"

When we left, Rita burst into a fit of laughter. "Did you see that girl's face when the note hit her head? I praise whoever did that though I didn't see anyone throw anything," Rita said.

Eiko looked generally interested when Rita started talking about the rude Senior girl.

"Oh, so it was Paulina . . ." Eiko said. "She's a real asshole and I can't believe she called you guys retarded! I mean, she failed English two times!"

"Talk about it," Rita said. "Hey, Hikari, why aren't you talking?"

I finally spoke up. "It was me," I said.

Rita stopped walking and both her and Eiko looked at me after I spoke.

"What do you mean, Hika-chan?" Rita asked.

"I did it. I made the eraser hit the girl's head," I said.

Eiko frowned. "But that's impossible unless you use telekinesis."

"No, no. I think it's the ring we got on Saturday. You know, the Akatsuki rings. I did feel something when I put it on." I explained.

Rita and Eiko nodded in agreement. They did feel something strange after all. I didn't feel crazy now.

Eiko said, "If you want to test it out, you guys can come to my place." Rita and I agreed, but saw a box on the corner of the street. It stood out because it was right there.

There was a note attached to it in almost unreadable handwriting. "Up for adoption. These crazy guys need to be put down!" I gasped and pointed at it.

I said, "Hey, look at that box. There's scratching noises coming from the box." Rita and Eiko walked towards the box with me hiding behind Rita. Rita carefully opened the box and a silver cat with violet eyes jumped out and started to attempt to scratch Rita, but was blocked by her hand.

"You fucking little furball," she told the clawing cat. "You really are crazy!" I came from behind Rita and saw seven other cats in the box.

There was a black cat with red no black no red eyes? He remained silent most of the time. The cat next to him was big. He had blue skin and what looked like gills? There was a cat with the cutest blue eyes and blonde fur. There was what looked like bangs covering his right eye. There was another cat that had brown fur with what looked like stitches? There was a cat with a black side and a white side. He had yellow eyes and he seemed like he was talking, no meowing to himself. Another cat was black, but had an orange face with a swirl and the blonde one was chasing it around. What odd cats. The only normal ones were the blonde one and a red one that was next to him. He had brown eyes and seemed to be bored.

Smiling, I picked up the red one and hugged him. "Aww, you're so cute! And you look so much like Sasori no Danna!" The cat looked oddly at me and started meowing at the other cats. The silver one from earlier was out back in the box. "Who did this to you guys? Poor kitties. Rita, can we keep them? Emi's going to be so happy."

"Fine, as long as these kitties don't bother me, I'm fine!" Rita said. "They better not make a mess out of everything!"

"Yay!" I screamed as I bear hugged Rita. Eiko looked on in amusement.

"I guess we're going to your house, instead," Eiko said. I nodded as Rita picked up the box and went back home.

"Damn, these kitties are fat asses!" Rita muttered. I still held the red cat as we entered through the front door.

Emi saw Rita holding the box and me holding the cat. She gasped. "Oh my god, is that a cat?" she asked. I nodded and she squealed. She picked the box up from a tired Rita and ran into the living room.

Putting down the box at the living room, Emi was opening the box and Rita collapsed onto the chair in exhaustion. I took out the cats one by one and rearranged them on the floor. "My, these are dirty cats. We're going to clean them after we name them!" I exclaimed.

Rita smiled evilly, "Now I can tell that furball not to mess with me anymore!"

Emi frowned. "Which one?"

"That silver one. He's an asshole," Rita muttered pointing.

"Hey, don't call him that1" Emi said. Emi really loved cats and always wanted to adopt one, but the sheltered cats were always sick. These were perfect. They were so weird, too.

* * *

No one's POV

Hidan growled, _'Can I kill that purple-haired bitch now?'_

'_Shut up, Hidan! We can't kill her! They might be our way out!' _Kakuzu scolded.

'_It seems like Hidan isn't so smart, un,' _Deidara said. _'Although, that blonde girl looks familiar, un.'_

'_Must be your imagination'__" _Sasori said._ 'This is obviously a different place.' _

'_Hn.'_

'_Hey, Itachi! We're cats! That girl is going to give us names!' _Kisame said.

'_By looking at the purple-haired girl, I don't think you'll happy about your name,'_ Sasori said to Hidan.

'_Shut up, puppet boy!' _Hidan said.

'_He's a cat,'_ Kakuzu deadpanned.

"I'm Hikari and this is Rita and Emi and Eiko!" the black haired girl said pointing to herself and her friends.

Rita picked up Hidan. "You'll be Soul. You look like Soul from Soul Eater!"

The cats howled with laughter except Sasori and Itachi.

'_Soul? That's so funny, un!' _Deidara howled.

'_Fuck you! I'll kill that girl. And shut up Dei-chan. She'll probably name you Barbie or something!' _Hidan said.

Deidara twitched at Hidan's comment. _'Oi, shut up, un!'_

Rita frowned, "Live with it, furball!" She turned to Deidara and picked him up. "You will be Blondie because you're blonde. Sorry about the names, but you'll have to live with it, like I said.

Eiko looked on in interest. Hikari and Emi sighed at the mistreatment.

"At least make his name Buddy, or something," Emi sighed. Rita shook her head.

Deidara made the emo corner and all of the Akatsuki cats laughed, well except Itachi and Sasori, again, especially Hidan.

Rita turned to Kakuzu and named him Stitches. Zetsu was named Oreo, which led him into the emo corner. Deidara gladly let him sulk with him. Tobi was Lollipop, which made him go, _'Deidara-sempai! Look, I'm Lollipop!_ _Rita-chan's so nice!' _It earned him a whack on the head by Deidara.

"You'll be Uchi, because you remind me of Itachi from the Akatsuki." When the cats looked up at Rita, she said, "Akatsuki are a group of villains from the anime Naruto, but I think that they're awesome! Now, you'll be Fishy cuz you have gills."

"Fishy" sulked in the corner with "Blondie" and "Oreo." Last, was Sasori, who was picked by Hikari. "You look so much like Sasori no Danna," she said.

Rita smirked, "Why don't you name him that?"

"What, hm?" Hikari asked.

"Why isn't he just called 'Danna'?"

"Good idea, Ri-chan!" Hikari squealed. "Now, to get you guys cleaned." Sasori finally showed emotion and went over to the emo corner while everyone else laughed.

'_Danna, you have a fangirl!' _Deidara joked.

Emi nodded and grabbed "Danna" and "Blondie" to go into the bathroom. "Rita, can you buy some cat food?" she asked.

"Later!" she heard Rita yell. They quietly up the stairs and Emi grabbed a few towels before walking into the bathroom. She turned on the bathtub tap and it began to run until it was deep enough for a cat bath.

"You guys are cute and weird, you know?" Emi asked. The cats didn't look afraid of the water like they normally were. She shrugged and dropped them both into the water, making sure not to splash the water onto her.

Immediately, there were two poofs in the air and in the cats' places sat two naked men: Akatsuki.

* * *

Rita, Hikari, and Emi are owned by me. Eiko and everybody else are owned by others. I'll give you guys a description next time. Review!

~Karin Taicho


	3. Meetings and Sasori the Leader

Hi guys! Finals are finally over, but I still have a couple of Regents coming up. I'm probably going to write a few more chapters by a week's time. The only time I'll be completely free would be August, so look forward for a lot of updating at that time.

I now present to you the characterizations of my OCs and Eiko. Others will come up, 'kay?

Rita Edwards

Age: 15

Looks: She has long purple hair and blue eyes.

Personality: She is very headstrong and often does things without thinking. Her attitude is much like Hidan's, but she only curses when angry. She is a little claustrophobic, however and does everything she can to protect her friends.

History: Her mother died when she was born, causing her father to hate her. He was already part of an evil organization. When Rita was eight and met Emi in a hospital.

Hikari Thompson

Age: 15

Looks: She has straight black hair and brown eyes. She is shorter than most people.

Personality: She is extremely shy like Hinata and is easily scared although she hates when her friends are hurt. She often tries to be stronger, but can't. She is only comfortable around her friends.

History: When she was ten, her parents died in war, leaving their house and fortune to her. Her grandmother used to live with her until she was twelve and she passed away. Now, her aunt is in control of the house, but lets Hikari stay in it alone. She later meets Rita and Emi and let them live there.

Emi Summers

Age: 15

Looks: She has long blonde hair often tied up by a scrunchie. She has bright blue eyes.

Personality: Although she is a withdrawn girl in school, she shows her true colors with her friends. She is a curious and headstrong girl, much like Rita and doesn't really care about what people saw about her.

History: Emi's father was killed in a car accident before she was born and when Emi was six, her mother died from drug use (at least, that's what the doctors told her) When she was eight years old, she got into a car accident, she lost her memories and the doctors told her about her past, but she didn't believe them. She has dreams of her past sometimes and she knows for a fact that her father definitely didn't die of a car accident.

Eiko Machina (Not my OC)

Age: 18

Looks: She has long black hair with the ends dyed blue. Her eyes are a grey color.

Personality: She looks bored by things and has a sarcastic attitude towards people. She can't take insults and also doesn't like it when people offend her friends.

History: Nothing much is known about her to the point that she doesn't know most things about herself. She lives across the street from Hikari's house by herself.

Okay, so those were the OCs! I hope you enjoy this chapter!

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. I only own my OCs. Eiko Machina isn't my OC. The end :)

* * *

Emi's POV

I gasped as the smoke cleared itself and there were two men in the bathtub. One had long blonde hair and blue eyes and the other one had red hair and bored maroon eyes.

I turned red. Really red. "W-what?" I stuttered. I looked around, thinking of what to say. This was so random. Was I dreaming? "T-the cats. D-did y-you kill them, y-yeah?" I asked. I didn't even bother correcting the "yeah" I said.

Rita always thought of me as another Deidara. He was my favorite in the Akatsuki, but I wasn't like one of those fucked-up fangirls. I sort of respect Deidara. He's cool, but my word deficit made me just like Deidara, but less extreme.

I didn't even register that the two men were Deidara and Sasori. "U-uh, we are the cats, yeah," the blonde said.

We looked each other and we blinked a few times. He looked so familiar. It wasn't even the anime that made me look at him as familiar. Then, I registered what he said.

"WHAT, UN?" I screamed. I opened the door and slammed it shut behind me. I was breathing unevenly. This was fucking crazy! Were those people for real? This is definitely a dream. Just a dream! I pinched myself, to make sure, but I was still in the hallway.

I heard people running up the stairs and I saw Eiko, Rita, and Hikari with worried faces along with the weird cats standing next to them.

"W-what's wrong, E-Emi?" Hikari asked.

"E-chan, what happened in there?" Rita asked.

Eiko gulped as I didn't say anything and walked over to the bathroom door and opened it. She walked in and I held my breath. Hopefully, she would walk out and ask me what was wrong. There better not be men in there, the next time I go into there.

My hopes were shattered once I heard her scream, "What the fuck?" She walked outside and said, "Where the fuck did they come from?" she asked.

Hikari and Rita went in and Hikari came out right away with her face bright red. "Oh my mother fucking Jashin! Why are there fucking cosplayers in my house?" Rita screamed.

She ran into the closet and grabbed two towels. She walked back in the bathroom and threw it in. "Cover yourselves up, bitches, You'll tell me why you're in my house!" she said sternly.

"U-um, thanks, un," Deidara muttered. Rita motioned for us to walk in and we did. Hikari was still red and I wouldn't blame her. I mean, look at those six packs! Many might not believe it, but I was a mini-pervert on the inside.

"Shut up. Now tell me, why are freaking cosplayers in my house?"

I looked at the boys. Their hair was so pretty and it looked so real.

"Cosplayers? What are they?" the Sasori cosplayer asked.

"Never mind," I said. "What are you doing in our house, Deidara and Sasori?"

"We were the cats and that black-haired girl put us into this water and we poofed, un," Deidara asked. Then, he jerked forward and pinned me to the wall. "Hey, how do you know our names anyways? Shouldn't we kill her for knowing too much, Danna?"

I didn't flinch as I looked at him and matched his icy glare with my own. Why did he look so damn familiar?

"No, look at her friends' hands. They have the rings," Sasori said.

"Yeah," Deidara muttered. "But _she_ doesn't have one. Should we kill her?" I froze. What the fuck were they talking about? The Akatsuki rings? Were they planning to kill me?

"You mean you were sent here?" Eiko asked.

"Pein's orders. Can we kill her, Danna?" Deidara asked impatiently.

Sasori thought for a moment. "She may be beneficial later on even without a ring. I feel that she has a lot of chakra . . . chakra that can rival yours," he said slowly.

"What, un? That's stupid, isn't it? How the hell can this girl have as much chakra as me?" Deidara asked incredulously.

"Um . . . Sasori . . . . what are you talking about? No one in this world has chakra," I pointed out, hoping that he won't get mad and turn me into a puppet.

"Wait . . . this world? What do you mean? We're still in Ame, right, yeah?" Deidara asked.

Sasori hit Deidara's head, making said bomber rub his head grumpily. "I never took you for a stupid brat, but now, I'm having doubts. Didn't you notice the different things that we saw before we were put in the box, Deidara? We saw these . . . automatons with wheels on them and . . . that box with the pictures in it. We are most definitely not in Amekagure right now," the redhead said.

Deidara's eyes widened comically, almost succeeding in making me laugh. "B-but then, where are we?" he asked.

"You're on Earth," Eiko said simply.

"No shit, un!" Deidara screamed. "Where in Earth, girl?"

"You mean . . . you also called your world 'Earth'? I was under the impression that you called it, well, something else," Eiko replied.

"Okay," Rita said, "You aren't going to like this, but you are in this land called America in this state called New York in a borough called Queens in my house."

Deidara and Sasori were silent for a few moment.

"Are you tricking us, girl?" Sasori asked, standing up.

"No," Rita said. "No I am not."

"Oh yeah, and in this world, you're all fictional!" Hikari said. Deidara and Sasori twitched. This wouldn't end wouldn't end well.

* * *

Rita's POV

I sighed and ushered the two nuke nins out of the bathroom and down the stairs with Hikari and Emi. Eiko brought in six more towels. She then grabbed the squirming Zetsu cat and blushed. I understood. She liked Zetsu and was about to see him naked as was me for Hidan. We both dropped them into the water and they poofed.

Without looking, we handed them their towels and heard cursing . . . a lot of it.

"Fuck this! I haven't made a sacrifice in a fucking while! Being a cat felt like shit! I'm gonna fucking sacrifice you to Jashin!" I felt a force push me back as I crashed into the wall as the smoke cleared. I gasped in pain as I opened my eyes to see Hidan pinning me to the wall.

He was still naked and I blushed, but said, "In the name of Jashin, get the fuck off of me you motherfucker! Have you ever heard of decency?" I kept myself from looking down at his toned chest.

The silver-haired man blinked, "You know who Jashin is?"

"No shit. If I didn't know, I wouldn't be swearing to him," I replied looking into his pink eyes.

"Why, you bitch!" he growled.

"It's Rita. Learn it," I smirked.

"Too bad. I'll kill you," he said. I panicked a little and grabbed a razor and cut his arm. I was hoping this would work as it will stop him from killing me . . . if I can die, that is. I licked the razor clean and felt something off. I was supposed to, right? If what Hika-chan said about the rings was true, then this should happen. I could be immortal. Hidan looked in awe as he saw me change into my Jashinist form. Then, he smirked. "So you're a Jashinist too. Good to know other people praise Jashin," he said.

I sighed in relief as I reverted back to myself and stood up while looking down. My bad. I blushed a deep shade of red. "Put on your fucking towel, Hidan!" I screamed and hit him on the head.

* * *

Eiko's POV

I held my breath as Rita and I dropped the Hidan and Zetsu cats into the water. We heard a poof and I closed my eyes and tried to act perfectly normal as I held my towel for Zetsu. After I felt him grab it, I began to open my eyes slowly to see the plant man in front of me. I blushed to see him half naked, after trying to act like my usual bored self.

"H-hello Z-Zetsu-San," I said.

"How do you know my name? **Can I eat her?**" Zetsu hissed. He launched towards me and I closed my eyes trying to see if what Hikari said was true. If we did inherit some power from the Akatsuki. If I did then,. . .

I opened my eyes when I felt nothing. I saw that I was half way sinking into the floor. So it did work. Zetsu looked genuinely surprised.

"How did you do that, **girl**?" he asked. I held up my hand for him to see his ring. He nodded and sunk into the ground to get out of the bathroom. I sighed as I got back on the ground. That wasn't how I pictured my meeting with Zetsu, but who cared? It wasn't like he was going to like me anyways.

I sighed as we dropped the rest of the Akatsuki in and handed them towels. They had mixed reactions. Tobi, of course burst out of the cloud of smoke naked and started to run around . . . with that thing in between his leg. I shivered at the thought of it. Criminal or not, I would never look at him the same again . . . not like I did in the first place. Tobi is an odd character, the leader of Akatsuki.

Rita and I only looked at each other in exasperation as we walked down the stairs to the living room where Hikari, Emi, and the Akatsuki were. Hikari was shivering and Emi put her arms around her protectively. She was like a mother hen at times like this.

They were cooped up on the couch whereas all of the Akatsuki were standing minus Tobi, who was running around and Hidan, who was sprawled out on the other couch.

Rita twitched. "Hidan, get the fuck off the couch!" she screamed.

Hidan blinked, and then said, "Hell no, bitch! I can do whatever the fuck I want!"

"This is my house, so my rules, bitch! If you're not going to follow it, get the hell out of my house!" she screamed.

"Listen to the girl, Hidan," Kakuzu said.

"Fuck no!"

I sighed. "Besides that, what are you doing here?" I asked.

"Bitch, we're not tell—" Hidan was cut off when I punched his head and he was knocked off the couch and Rita stayed silent. I couldn't take insults . . . it was my weakness and I hate this stupid pride I have.

"Now that Hidan is quiet," I said slowly, "We can start the meeting. Now . . . why. Are. You. Here?"

"Why should we tell y—"

Deidara was cut off by Sasori. "Stop the useless banter, Deidara. Tell them why we're here."

"**Geez**, when did you become **the fucking leader**?" Zetsu asked. Sasori ignored the cannibal's question and told Deidara to talk.

"Fine, un. We were sent on a mission by Pein-sama. We had to each get a new recruit by giving them the ring, but we lost it during an ANBU attack when a black portal opened up and sucked us in. Then we ended up as nekos in this place, un. Well, we eneded up in this place and some dude picked us up, un," Deidara said.

"You mean, this lady," Kisame said. Deidara growled and was about to add his comment, but the shark decided to keep on talking, further infuriating the blonde bomber. "She took us into her house and there was all these weird things like a TV, or whatever she called it. Soon, Tobi messesd up everything and—"

"Tobi is a good boy!"

"And she threw us out and you found us," Kisame finished, ignoring Tobi's outburst as we all did. "Who are you guys, anyways?"

"I'm Eiko Machina," I said.

"I'm Rita. Don't fuck with me, or my friends, or I'll kill you!" Rita exclaimed with her blue eyes burning through Hidan's.

"I-I'm H-Hikari Thompson," Hikari said. "I-it's a pleasure to me-meet you."

"And I'm Emi Summers," Emi said withdrawing her arms from Hikari's.

"And how exactly do you know us?" We looked to the corner of the room where Itachi was. He hasn't talked since he stepped foot out of the bathtub. When he turned human again, he just nodded at us and walked out.

"We have this thing in our world called a manga," Emi said.

"We have them, too, yeah," Deidara pointed out.

"Well, we also have something called anime which is the same thing as a manga, but it's animated into these devices we call televisions, or TVs as Kisame said earlier," Emi explained. "This," she said pointing to her's "is a television. You get to see all these shows and this box is for entertainment purposes."

"How exactly does this relate to why you know us?" Kakuzu asked.

"W-well, in our w-world, you g-guys are vi-villains f-from one of th-them," Hikari said. "So, you're su-supposed to be f-fiction."

"But we're fucking real!" Hidan said incredulously.

"No shit, that's why you're here," Rita said. "Besides, Hika-chan said the word 'supposed', not 'are', so listen closely, dumbasses!"

Itachi and Zetsu twitched at the comment, and Deidara and Hidan started yelling profanities. Kakuzu and Sasori looked in amused at their teamates' antics.

"So that means that you guys ended up in a different world, blah, blah, blah," Emi said.

"So what do you know about us?" Sasori asked.

"Basic info," I said. "Birthdays, Academy graduation dates, powers, stuff. Oh yeah, and you just captured Ichibi, right?"

"How did you—"

"Why do you say that?" Sasori asked, cleanly interrupting Deidara.

"Because Deidara's arms are stitched up, courtesy of Kakuzu here," Emi said.

"That's all we know," I said quickly. We couldn't give out too much information.

Rita then looked like she noticed something odd. "But if Tobi's here, doesn't that mean Sasor—"

"That's all we know," I repeated forcefully.

"No, I would like to hear what she has to say about me," Sasori said.

Hikari gasped on the sofa and some tears began to well up in her eyes. "B-but," she muttered out.

"Now," he said.

"W-well, y-you d-die," Hikari mumbled almost incoherently. "T-that's wh-why Tobi's here, b-but y-you're h-here, too." Sasori began to chuckle deeply. Hikari looked surprised as did Deidara.

"Danna? Why are you laughing? You die, un! That's not funny, yeah!" Deidara exclaimed thinking that there was something wrong about his Danna.

"You are pretty funny if you're crying over that. You see, you're probably not committed to your manga or whatever it is if you don't know that I was revived by Uchiha," Sasori said, throwing a glare to said Uchiha.

Hikari's face resembled a ripe tomato and she buried her face in her lap, causing Sasori to chuckle even more. "You're interesting . . . don't like to fight, huh? Do you by any chance have Tobi's ring instead of mine?"

"I-I have yours," Hikari said.

Sasori nodded. "Now that we are done with introductions, we still need to complete our mission and then return to our world. We need five other people with our rings and a way to get home." the other members nodded. "So you three must help us."

* * *

Sasori's POV

"Help you guys?" this time the purple-haired girl spoke. "Of course we will, baka!"

I twitched and nodded. "Then we'll have to train you. Hidan will go with you, Zetsu will go with Eiko, and Hikari will go with me."

At first, I believed that she had Tobi's ring because of her timidness, but Tobi was the complete opposite of timid and so am I. I believe that now we know that the rings that the people find do not have to match the personality of the Akatsuki member. But the girl is interesting. To think that this girl cried over me and has never met me in my life is interesting and odd. I have never come across such a case.

The girl smiled. She was pretty cute after- what? Cute? Did I really think that way? I shook my head. Isn't it impossible for me to love anymore? All my life, I have ditched my emotions and they're finally coming back. Now, I say that some random girl is cute!

'She's not a random girl Sasori. She's the girl you have to train. Your pupil,'

I thought. That just made everything worse.

"Hey, Sasori no Danna, un, what's wrong?" the brat asked.

"Nothing," I said. We were about to find a training area when . . .

"Wait up guys, we need to go shopping!" Rita said. I turned around and gave her a questioning glance.

"Shopping? Is this really the right time for that? We need to find the other five now. We have no time," I said and Kakuzu seemed to agree fervently.

"Time is money and your use of money is a waste," he said like he recited it off a book.

Hikari blushed, "B-but you guys are going to li-live here for a while and s-sooner or later, you will go o-outside. A-and you guys only h-have towels. You need c-clothes," she stuttered.

I mentally slapped my head. I forgot that? Something like that? I might really be growing old. I then gave myself a good reason about why I wasn't stupid: I used to be a puppet and puppets don't really need clothing. That made everything worse.

"Er yeah, whatever," I decided to say.

Rita smirked. "You three go shopping. I'll take care of these little bastards," she said.

"Who are you calling a fucking bastard?" Hidan screeched.

"You!" Rita screamed.

"Shut up," Zetsu said.

"So, we're going now," said Emi. Eiko nodded and was walking to the door when Tobi ran up and glomped Hikari.

"Tobi will miss Hika-chan and the E-chans," Tobi said.

I don't know why, but at that moment, I wanted to rip off Tobi's head. I have never felt this way towards him before, but why now? Sure Tobi was annoying, but I never felt the urge to maul him or damage him . . . permanently.

"Get off, Ma-Tobi!" Emi screamed. I frowned Ma-Tobi? What was that supposed to mean.

"Tobi's a good boy and Madara's a very bad boy!" Tobi said. Madara, who was that?

Eiko and Emi visibly paled after they heard Tobi and Eiko said, "C-come on Hikari."

I turned to see that the black-haired girl was paling a little as well. So Tobi has a secret which scares them. I have to ask him later. Zetsu seemed to have slapped his (or their) head(s) repeatedly and Deidara looked confused. Itachi had a bored expression, but I felt that he, Tobi, Zetsu, and the girls were hiding something.

What were they hiding?

* * *

Eiko's POV

After buying the necessary clothes and food, Hikari, Emi, and I hopped on the car back home. My car wasn't really nice, but it was a cool, shiny silver Chevy Malibu. I turned on the radio to the news channel as everyone got in.

_'Today, a 19 year old girl, Heather, last name unknown, disappeared from her abusive mother's home in the Bronx. Her location is still unknown. Heather has messy black hair. Is about 5'4" and weighs about 100 pounds. She has blue eyes without any pupils. If you see her, call 1-856-325-9374'_ (A/N: just some number I made up. Don't call it) the radio said.

I sighed. Another missing person? These days, everyone is getting kidnapped. I made a right turn when Hikari spoke up. "Hey, Eiko?" she asked.

"Yeah?" I saw Emi look at Hikari confusedly.

"D-do you think that I would stand a chance with Sasori no Danna?" she asked.

"Stop being negative, Hikari. Everybody stands a chance with anyone as long as they don't give up. If you truly love someone, you can't give up easily!" I said.

"Thanks," she said.

"You're welcome," I replied.

"You, Emi?" she asked.

"I think the same as Eiko. As long as you never keep up, he's going to notice you and your determination. I'm sure it will be good," Emi said.

"Thank you," Hikari said brightly.

Emi just smiled and nodded.

We got out of the car as I pulled into the garage. Across the street, something caught my eye, or someone. A dirty girl with messy black hair ran across the street. Her blue eyes showed fear and her clothing was dirty. A garbage bag was slung over her shoulder holding several belongings.

I thought about the earlier report in the news. "Heather," I said quietly.

* * *

Okay, so you may notice that some parts were exactly the same while others were completely different. Yeah . . . that's what happens when there's a new OC. Sighs.

Also, I remember that before my fanfic got deleted, I had, I believe 57 reviews and a lot of favorite story things. Right now, the stats are 5 reviews, 129 hits, 5 favorite story, and 3 story alerts. Come on, guys, review more! I'd like to know my mistakes and I felt like I improved as a writer through you guys. You can see the difference between my first fanfic The Dare and this. It's a huge difference and it counts. Also, anonymous reviews are okay, too!

Thanks and "see" you soon!

Karin Taicho!


	4. The Runaway

Okay! This is the fourth chapter of Connected Rewrite! Enjoy the chapter and I have a OC profile here! This one is of Heather.

Heather

Age: 19

Description: She has shoulder length, messy black hair and blue eyes. One of her eyes is pure blue and has no pupil.

Personality: She is very unpredictable and bipolar. She is very violent at times and she doesn't like it when people curse at her or any of her friends. She hates bad table manners.

History: She recently ran away from home and has physic powers prior to getting Tobi's ring. She can see people's auras to know if they're lying and when she makes body contact with someone, she gets their memories.

Enjoy!

* * *

Eiko's POV

"Heather," I whispered. Before I thought about it, I burst out of my car and ran across the street, not caring about all the cars that started honking their horns at me. I saw that she was Heather. Sure enough, she had messy black hair and blue eyes. Nearing the girl, I grabbed her arm tightly. She thrashed about in my arms.

"Stop it! Let go of me right now! Help! Help me!" she screamed.

"Calm down, Heather. I'll help you," I said. Hikari and Emi ran over to where I was from the car. Hikari's face showed shock and Emi was confused.

"What's going on?" she asked.

"This is the girl from the radio before. You know, Heather?" I asked. They both nodded in understanding.

When Heather was fighting back, I felt my hand go through her arm.

"W-what how did that happen?" I asked. I didn't purposely make my arm go through. The girl looked surprised as well.

"I-I'm a monster!" she exclaimed with her blue eyes wide. Now that I see it, one of her eyes was cloudy and had no pupil. That was cool. I tried to grab her hand, but it went through again. I cursed in my head. She started to run away.

"No, wait!" I screamed. I caught a glimpse of something shining on her hand. It was the second gyoku ring . . . the one for Tobi. "You need to come with us. We'll help you. We won't turn you in! You have one of the rings! Come with us and you'll have control of your powers! You're not a monster if you would look at me, I'm just like you!" I screamed. Why was I so hellbent on getting that girl? Most of my past was clouded so that even I couldn't remember.

The girl turned to me, still shaking. "I'm a freak. I read people's auras and now, people can go through me. If I'm not a monster, than what am I?" she asked with her eyes showing sadness. They were blank, cold eyes.

"You're a p-person. No matter how y-your past was. H-however you were t-treated, you are still human!" Hikari exclaimed. She was biting her lip to keep from crying. She couldn't help but feel sorry for the girl.

"What makes you so similar to me? You probably don't have any powers like I do," she said. "You just pity me, right? I don't need any pity."

"It's not your fault. Look, we have rings like you which give us powers. I can go through anything solid and Hikari can control inanimate objects and people! How are we any different from you?" I said. "Emi doesn't have any powers, but she's still with us!"

Heather gasped. "Y-you too?"

"Yes, and everyone else we live with. You might not believe us, but Akatsuki gave them power through the rings. You have one, too," Emi said.

Shockingly, the girl came over and touched my hand. "You're right. The Akatsuki. . . they're real," she said. "I-I'll come, but if anything happens, I'll leave," she said.

Hikari, Emi, and I smiled as I grabbed her hand and we walked towards my car ready to go home again. It was surprise to see her here and I wonder what was going to be the Akatsuki's reaction.

* * *

Heather's POV

Why? Why was this girl helping me? A freak? I watched as she pulled me into a house. It was pretty large and it wasn't like any other house that I lived in. Inside, there were the Akatsuki and another girl, but with purple hair.

"About time you fuckers got home! Who's the new bitch?" Hidan asked.

I felt anger bubbling inside of me as I appeared behind him and attempted to cut his head off with my switchblade. I was angered easily. He wouldn't die, would he?

He quickly grabbed my arm and threw me on the floor. "Ouch ouch," I moaned as I clutched my arm in pain as soon as he let me go.

"Crazy girl," Hidan muttered. "Where the fuck did she come from? Can I fucking sacrifice her?"

"Don't speak to me like that," I said to him giving him a glare. He didn't seem fazed; he was just angry. He was about to scream, but the purple-haired girl interrupted.

"Hey, no fighting in my house!" the purple-haired girl screamed at Hidan, effectively knocking him over the head with her fist. He collapsed painfully on the floor to the amusement of Kakuzu and Deidara. "I'm Rita."

I shook her hand and said, "I-I'm H-heather." My behavior changed immediately as I was a little intimidated by her. She was pretty scary and seemed to be the owner of the house.

She took a look at my ring and said, "So you have Tobi's ring? Be careful, Heather!"

Be careful? What did that mean? I thought that Tobi was just Tobi and it never occurred to me that some Uchiha was behind that mask.

"So, you have Tobi's ring, Girl-chan? Tobi likes you!" a man in an orange swirly mask said as he glomped me. All of a sudden, images flashed through my head . . . those of Tobi and Madara . . . Madara? I shrunk back a little in realization. Tobi wasn't the man I thought he'd be. First of all, he's the true leader of Akatsuki. Second, he was Uchiha Madara. I always thought that he was Obito or someone else. Eiko should have known, but I didn't check through all her memories . . . only the ones that seemed important. All the others flowed to the back of mind like nothing happened.

I blushed and said, "T-Tobi-kun, can you get off me please? And my name is Heather."

"Tobi likes you, Heather-chan!" he screamed. I was blushing now and no one new the crush I had on Tobi since he got on manga. He was cute and adorable and I got even more red when I found him with only a towel on, showing his toned chest. But what was disturbing was the aura he was giving off. He had a bubbly aura, but inside, I felt a darkness that I never knew that Tobi could have. He was indeed the Uchiha.

Sasori said, "That was faster than I expected. Good work, you two."

Eiko nodded and Hikari blushed. I smirked. So Hikari liked Sasori? And since when was Sasori the leader?

"So, Heather, our miss-" Sasori was cut off.

"I know, I know," I interrupted.

Sasori gave me an irritated look with his bored brown eyes and Kisame asked, "How do you know?"

"I touched Eiko's hands and found out from there. I can look into everyone's past," I said. Though I didn't notice it, Itachi, Zetsu, and Tobi tensed up.

"That's pretty cool! You can probably tell me why Tobi is mentally retarded, then," Deidara said.

Tobi screamed, "NO! Tobi's not Obito! Obito is retarded!"

I twitched a little. No . . . Obito was adorable! It was really sad that he died. I didn't want it to happen. Besides, I wasn't going to tell Deidara who Tobi was anytime soon.

Some of the Akatsuki gasped. Poor innocent Tobi used the word "retarded" to describe someone? That's not what a person like Tobi would say. He would probably say something like, "NO! Tobi is not Obito! Tobi is Tobi and Obito is Obito!"

Maybe instead, he'd say, "NO! Tobi is Tobi! Obito is stupid!" but that isn't much different from what he actually said.

"Did Tobi say what I just thought he fucking said?" Hidan asked everybody and they nodded. "Fuck! Tobi, did you take your meds? You used a big word! That's fucking hilarious!"

"Tobi is confused! Tobi doesn't take me-meds," Tobi exclaimed, having trouble pronouncing meds.

I ignored Hidan's outburst and turned to Deidara who was laughing.

"Sorry, Deidara-San, I won't tell you if Tobi-kun wants to keep it a secret," I said.

Deidara's happy expression deteriorated and he sulked. Tobi said, "Yay! Heather-chan's so nice to Tobi."

"Yes Tobi, Heather is nice and you guys need to get into clothes," Eiko said in a bored fashion. The Akatsuki nodded and Eiko tossed them a bag of shirts. "Choose your own. I already got one for each of you, so I shouldn't worry about fighting. I have pants here, too, but they're all the same. You got converse, too courtesy of Hikari here. They cost a bunch. Luckily, that Walmart's guy gave us a discount."

Tobi had on a shirt that says, "I want candy!" and a pair of jeans. He got a pair of orange converse, much to Rita's dislike. She didn't like orange.

Sasori had on a red shirt that says, "Control Freak" in black ink. He had on jeans, well everybody had jeans. He received a pair of red converse which he didn't wear.

Zetsu had a black t-shirt with a green Mario mushroom which said "Get a Life," in green letters. He even got the green converse.

Hidan had a black t-shirt with a yellow smiley face. The white words on the bottom spelled, "I Hate You!" He got the white converse, which wasn't a really good idea because of his tendencies.

Itachi had a Lincoln Park shirt over jeans and black converse.

Kisame had a blue shirt with a shark on it. In big letters, it said, "The Great White Shark." Blue converse suited him well.

Deidara had a shirt that says, "Art is the bomb!" He seemed pretty happy about that shirt, too. He got the yellow converse on.

Kakuzu had a shirt that had a money sign on it and said, "Cheapstake." he was obviously not really happy about that. He had the brown converse. So . . . everyone got a different color.

Eiko even contemplated if she was going to buy two pairs. One for Pein and Konan for when they go to the Narutoverse, but she didn't buy them.

I had also changed into some of Eiko's clothes because we were about the same size. I grabbed my I-Pod from my bag and started playing it while I also took out a sketch book and started to draw Tobi. My I-Pod was playing "Tik Tok" by Ke$ha.

My sketch book had a bunch of stuff in it ranging from Akatsuki to black wings and other stuff, mainly anime related. I had a portrait or two in there and I would rather keep my pictures to myself.

I soon finished singing to the song and then I heard clapping. It came from Tobi, but I didn't hear him come into the room. I guess he teleported as I saw the closed door. "Good job, Heather-chan! Heather-chan sings good!" I also looked down to see my drawing done and Tobi was coming over. "What are you drawing? Tobi wants to see!"

I quickly hid my sketch book and said, "No, I'm sorry, but it's personal." Damn, I feel that heat on my face.

"Aww," Tobi pouted and I smiled at his cuteness despite the evil inside.

I was probably going to get used to this.

* * *

Rita's POV

It was eleven right now and all I wanted to do was sleep. We had school anyways and couldn't ditch. The fucking truant lady is our next door neighbor. She always comes to check on us and it's going to be weird if she sees the Akatsuki.

I could hear her high pitch yelling from here because of her children . . . poor them and their sorry lives. They were only twelve and they had to stay up all day doing God knows what over there. Maybe she was beating them. Who knows what they're going to be when they're older. If they turn out to be truant officer, too, I'd die.

I sighed as I walked down the stairs to see Hika-chan, Eiko, Heather, Emi, and the Akatsuki. They were still talking about random shit.

"Guys," I said trying to get their attention. When they didn't listen, I screamed, "GUYS!" Heads started to turn towards me.

"What do you want, bitch?" Hidan asked.

"Oh shut up, I'm too tired to be cursing you out anymore. Anyways, we need to know where everyone's sleeping," I said. It was kind of obvious. It was only the first day the Akatsuki had entered our house and they already forgot that they needed sleep.

Eiko said, "Heather should sleep over at my place along with Tobi, Zetsu, Itachi, and Kisame. You guys have the rest."

I nodded, "'Kay, Hika-chan, Emi-chan, you two can decide the room assignments. I'm going to sleep," I muutered. I really didn't care who was in my room as long as it wasn't Hidan or someone like that. Speaking of Emi, she'd probably going to put him in here anyways. Hopefully, he doesn't decide to be a pervert in the middle of the night.

I went upstairs for sleep. I opened my bedroom door and flopped on my bed. So much has happened today, I didn't even get any rest and Hidan . . . I'm feeling something weird in my chest. Though he is an asshole, am I falling for him? I shook my head and yawned. Slowly, I fell into the clutches of darkness.

I stared in shock as a towering figure came upon me and thrust the knife down on my arm. I started to cry and scream in pain. Fat tears rolled down my cheeks as I looked up at the figure. It was my father and he was drunk. He moved withdrew the knife and walked towards me, but I ran away. I saw myself getting better. Meeting Emi. Meeting Hikari. Meeting the Akatsuki. Meeting Eiko and Heather. Then, I saw my father again and countless figures fall to my feet. They were my friends, "NOOO!" I ran towards them, but they couldn't hear me. They were dead . . . all of them. I could hear the laughter of my father as he 'killed' Hidan by cutting his head off.

My eyes grew wide as he headed towards me, "You ungrateful bitch. You should have stayed with me that way your little friends wouldn't have died!"

I felt a pang of guilt. Hidan's decapitated head started to talk, "Bitch, wake up, you are weak. You can't protect yourself and your friends. You're useless." the words repeated over and over again in my head as my father stabbed me again. Everybody got closer to me to the point that I was getting mobbed by them my friends. They were dead, but they came towards me. Crowding me. I began hyperventilate . . .

"Bitch! Hey bitch, wake up already!"

I felt a pain on my side and screamed loudly.

My eyes jerked opened as I found that I fell on the floor. I looked up and felt a little dizzy. The light was open and I sighed. Then, I saw purple. There were Hidan's eyes.

"Hey, bitch, you okay?" he asked and I blushed.

"Thanks for your concern, but can you get the hell off me?" I asked.

"Sheesh. Could have just said get off," he said getting off. I saw a sleeping Kakuzu and smirked despite my trauma. I got over nightmares quickly, but this one was still repeating itself in my head.

Hopefully, Hidan would be too dense to realize that I had a headache. With a pillow, I walked up to Kakuzu and smacked him on the head.

"What the fuck?" he screamed. I laughed as I dropped the pillow and rolled on the floor, clutching my stomach in pain. "And I was dreaming about money, too."

"Fucking money whore, now get out cause I need to change," I said with tears in my eyes. Kakuzu growled and walked out of the room, leaving Hidan behind. I blinked and stared at him when I got off the floor.

"You, too," I said to Hidan, finally.

"But what if I don't want to?" he asked.

I was about to speak up before he pushed my body against the wall with both arms surrounding me. He pushed his body up on mine and I blushed. What the hell was this? I could smell his breath on my ear and I shivered.

"W-what the fuck's your problem?" I asked feeling constricted. Sweat began to roll down my forehead . . . I was claustrophobic.

"Nothing," he said huskily.

"G-get off me right now! Now, Hidan!" I screamed.

"Fine," he frowned as he got off. I kicked him where the sun doesn't shine and then proceeded to actually kick him out. I locked the door behind me as I put my hand to my chest. It felt as if it was beating a hundred times faster than normal. It was impossible. I can't fall for a fictional character. I can't fall for Hidan! It was just my claustrophobia, I convinced myself.

Sighing, I grabbed my school uniform and changed into it. When I went downstairs, I grabbed a bowl of cereal. While I munched on my Frosted Flakes, Hikari and Emi came down the stairs with the Akatsuki. Hidan and I would refuse to make eye contact. I smiled slightly as I saw him clutching his lower area, probably still in pain.

Then, the door bell rang and in came Eiko, Heather, Tobi, Zetsu, Itachi, and Kisame. Eiko and Zetsu seemed to be not making eye contact as well. I wonder why . . .

* * *

Eiko's POV -flashback-

I locked the door behind me. I sighed. Those perverts better not try that again. I stripped to my bra and panties when I noticed something odd about my plant. It was most definitely not a Venus flytrap. Then I realized, "ZETSU! You pervert, get out!" I karate-chopped him on the head before he could get away.

* * *

Rita's POV

"H-hey guys? We need to go to school," Hikari said. My eyes widened.

"Fuck, there's school!" Emi and I exclaimed. I looked over at the Akatsuki. What would happen to them?

"School? What's that? Candy?" Tobi squealed. I wanted to punch him in the face so bad, but Madara would just kill me later. Heather seems like she likes Tobi. I guess she doesn't know he's Madara maybe she does.

"No, you dipshit," I deadpanned. "It's a place where people under the age of eighteen go to so that they can learn. I honestly don't see a point in going to school," I said.

"So, you guys have to go?" Kisame asked. Eiko nodded.

"All of us girls have to go except Heather because she's nineteen," she said. Heather looked at us in shock.

"You don't mean that I have to take care of them all by myself?" she asked. Eiko nodded. "Fine," Heather grumbled. "I'm stuck with you guys."

"Does Heather-chan not like Tobi?" Tobi asked sounding dejected.

"No, of course not! I like you, Tobi!" she said. "It's the others that I have a problem with." She threw a look at Hidan, which made me smile.

I grinned, "We are going to go now. Heather, don't let them go outside, okay?" The messy haired girl nodded. "Come on, let's go," I said to Eiko, Emi, and Hikari.

We walked out the door for another day of school. Emi turned the other way with her bike since she used it to get to her school. Unlike our school which was about ten minutes away, it was thirty by foot to get to hers.

Sigh . . . school. I hate you so much. Why must you haunt me so? Then, I remembered.

"Hikari . . . don't we have a trip to the zoo today?" I asked her curiously, hoping that we did.

"Yes," she replied.

"Yes!" I screamed and ran towards the school in happiness leaving Hikari to sweat drop and Eiko to ask her where.

"The Bronx Zoo . . . the place we were waiting to go for ages. Wouldn't it be interesting if the Akatsuki came?" Hikari asked Eiko.

"Yes it would be." But that obviously wouldn't happen. And it didn't.

My stomach growled as I ran. God damn . . . I need more Pop Tarts.

* * *

How do you like this chapter? I would really like to know. There aren't as many reviews as I would hope. Again, I would like constructive criticism.

Over and Out,

Karin Taicho


	5. The Emotionally Confused Girl

Ittttt's chapter 5! I finally finished all of my Regents! It was so hot out that I was dying on my way home to come back and write this story! My mom says that I'm addicted to writing these.

Well, there's a new character, everybody! Again, she's not one of my OCs.

Sayuri Taiyono

Age: 20

Description: Dark-brown very straight hair up to her waist. She has silvery-blue eyes.

Personality: She normally distances herself away from people because she doesn't know how to react to them. She is easily bored and flustered. She believes in working hard and oddly enjoys being around hyper people. (So she's kind of like Sai, but more knowledgeable about friendship and stuff than him)

History: She lives with her parents, who have a lot of money (not rich). She used to be ignored in the family because her older brother, Shirosei, would get all the attention, but after he died of leukemia, she wanted to make her parents happier. However, it ends up that she felt as if she was being replaced for her brother.

Enjoy!

* * *

Heather's POV

The door closed and locked as my new four friends went to school. I sighed and looked back at the Akatsuki who were causing havoc.

Hidan was playing Modern Warfare with Kakuzu. Both were confused as hell and just pressed random buttons. Who gave them the controllers, anyway? I was laughing my ass of as Hidan kept on dying and Kakuzu revived him by luck of the buttons.

Itachi and Kisame were raiding the cabinets searching for candy . . . it's just my guess. Itachi smiled as he took out a packet of Strawberry Pocky. He didn't share with Kisame. I bounded towards Itachi in breakneck speed and begged him for some Pocky and he gave me one. Kisame sadly walked away.

Sasori was reading a book on, well, perverted stuff like what Kakashi would read. How did he get his hands on that? His face was really red and his hands were shaking. It looked like he didn't know what was going on.

Zetsu was in the corner of the room where the plant was. The cannibal was watering the plant with care like it was his baby . . . awkward. He was talking to himself while he was at it, which made it worse.

Lastly, Tobi was running around the room like what he would normally do and Deidara hit him over the head and I grew mad. Withdrawing the half-eaten Pocky from my mouth, I pointed it at Deidara in anger.

"Hey, don't hit Tobi like that! What did he do?" I exclaimed.

Deidara looked at me oddly and said, "Tobi was jumping all over the place, un. Do you want him to destroy the house, yeah?"

I sighed and then turned to Tobi, putting the stick back in my mouth and chewing on it slowly.

"Is Heather-chan going to yell at Tobi? Tobi's a good boy!" he exclaimed and waved his hands around.

I sighed, "Yeah, Tobi's a good boy, but don't jump on the walls next time, okay? Anyways, you guys must be hungry, right?"

Deidara and Tobi nodded. Itachi and Kisame were still raiding the cabinets, which probably meant that they were hungry. Hidan screamed, "Heck Yeah!" and continued on his game while Kakuzu merely nodded. Sasori closed the book with his eyes closed. Zetsu . . . well Zetsu was eating a fly which landed on the plant just like what a Venus Flytrap would do . . . at least, a normal one.

"Okay, I'll see what we have here," I said, walking into the kitchen. I opened the refrigerator to see two cartons of eggs, some toast, bacon, and orange juice. Sheesh, they must love their eggs.

I ended up whisking up some eggs and making French Toast, one of the best breakfasts in my opinion. However, my favorite would be bread with Nutella and then Pop Tarts. I wonder who in the world wouldn't eat them. In the middle of it, Itachi walked up to me.

"Heather-San," he said. I looked surprised because this was the first time he spoke to me after I arrived. Everyone else had talked to me at least once. Even Zetsu did, but that was because he wanted to eat me. I shivered a little.

"Yes, Itachi-San?" I asked while frying the bacon with the frying pan. The aroma of bacon was spread throughout the whole kitchen.

"If you have that kekkai genkai and Tobi had hugged you, do you know about his past?" Itachi asked tensing up a little. I realized what he was asking.

"Like I said, I'm not revealing anything," I said. His eyes widened.

"I already know. Just try to stay away from Madara," he said with a serious tone. He really meant it.

I nodded and continued cooking. I flipped over the bacon so that it can fry on the other side,

"What is that?" Itachi asked pointing to the stove.

"It's called a stove. It lights on fire so that you can cook stuff. I thought you guys would have at least heard of a stove," I said surprised at Itachi lack of knowledge. "Maybe you had a Bunsen burner or something. It's basically the same as one."

"Hn," he said and walked away to look through the cabinets a third time. I guess Uchihas' are curious.

Ten minutes later, I served the food. We all gathered around the big breakfast table. Deidara poked the toast around with his fork like all the others. "What's this, un?" he asked.

"It's French toast. Like, um, eggs with toast and some bacon. You guys also, um have orange juice," I said.

"I don't eat **eggs**. I eat **raw meat**," said Zetsu. I nodded and handed him some raw bacon, which he accepted to my pleasure. We wouldn't want to have Zetsu eating anybody, do we?

Tobi, who ate his French toast in a second, said, "It's yummy, Heather-chan!"

"Thank you, Tobi!" I exclaimed. But seriously, how did Tobi manage to eat all of that without taking off that mask?

Deidara was thinking the same thing as he sweat dropped at Tobi. Then, I heard this irritating squiring noise and it was coming from right next to me. I turned to my right side.

Kisame was eating with his mouth opened and making nasty noises with his food. "Hoshigake-san, will you stop making that nasty noise?" I asked him.

He didn't hear and kept on munching. My eye twitched and I said, "Hoshigake-san, can you stop making that noise?"

Still chewing. Now I'm fed up with people ignoring me so, I yelled, "Dammit, Kisame, can you stop making that repulsive noise unless you wanted to be sacrificed to Jashin and fed to Zetsu?"

Kisame looked in surprise, "Oh sorry, Heather-San," he said.

Hidan laughed, "Kisame got laughed at by a little girl!" My eye twitched.

"Little girl? Who are you calling a little girl? I'm only three years younger than you and I am most certainly not a girl!" I screamed at the Jashinist.

"So, if you're not a girl, then are you a guy?" he asked, smirking. His purple eyes were smiling at me.

"Agh! I'm a fucking woman! Jashin, make this man smarter, please!" I said.

So, I was stuck dealing with Akatsuki all day. Boy was this irritating!

* * *

Rita's POV

So we did have a trip to the zoo today.

We also had a tour guide at the Bronx Zoo. Someone called Fred or whatever his name was. I didn't give a shit. We were walking to the monkey exhibit when I saw this girl with black hair and cool silvery-blue eyes. She was looking at the same monkeys I was. Hikari stood next to me as well, admiring the cute monkeys, wait I did so not just call them cute! Agh! Damn monkeys and their cuteness are overrated!

"They're beautiful," a calm voice said. I looked to my right to see that girl with the cool eyes.

Hikari noticed her and said, "Yeah. Sometimes nature helps us calm down. That's the beauty of it.

"Maybe it is true. That's why nature's so fascinating to me," the girl said and walked away. I noticed a glint on her hand and saw 'Shu' in kanji written on it. I widened my eyes when I realized it was Itachi's ring.

"Hey, girl," I said running forward, but a group of people blocked me. When they got out of the way, the girl disappeared off to somewhere else and I sighed. We just lost one. Cursing, I turned to Hikari who was still looking at the monkeys. I guess I'll just have to look for her later.

* * *

Itachi's POV

After dinner, which was consisted of something called pasta and tomato sauce, I called the black-haired girl over. Hikari, I believed it was. I sighed after noticing that we were eating tomatoes . . . Sasuke's favorite food. A picture of him eating a whole tomato was engraved in my head and I smiled a little. He would always hide a stash of them in his room.

"I'm going out. I need to relax," I said and she nodded.

"Okay, Itachi-san. Don't be out too long," she said.

I nodded. Immediately after I went out, I sensed a strong chakra. Someone might have purchased a ring. I followed the chakra and walked along a few streets avoiding what Rita called cars. This world is very different from ours. It was hard to believe that these pesky vehicles could cause death. I walked into a narrow passageway where the chakra was emanating from and heard loud noises.

"Get away from me!" I heard. It was a woman's voice. Somehow, that voice sounded beautiful. Almost angelic unlike what tone she was talking in. I frowned as I walked closer.

"I don't think so, babe," said another voice. This voice was male and by the sound of it, it seemed like the woman was scared.

I turned to see a woman about my age (21) backing up from a man. Her black hair was messed up and her silvery-blue eyes looked up in fear. Several men were behind the one in the front, who was muscular. He pushed her up against the wall and she tried to push him off. He was going to rape her.

I emitted a low growl and stepped into their view.

"Let the girl go," I said and the man laughed. The girl seemed shocked to see me. It was like she knew me.

"What can you do, Mr. Tough Guy? You so skinny, you don't even got muscles. Go teach him a lesson, boys. Tell him that next time, he don't interrupt nobody," the man said menacingly.

I looked indifferently, "Let her go, or you regret it," I said activating my Sharingan.

"Attack him," spat the man as his men sprang forward in attempt to attack me while I held up a hand sign. Tsukuyomi. The men immediately fell for my genjutsu as I walked forward.

The man panicked slightly, "Hey, attack him!"

"No use," I said walking closer. He grabbed a knife and held it against the woman's throat. Her eyes widened in horror as she fought back.

"Let go, you crazy bastard!" she yelled.

"Come closer and I'll slit her throat," he said with sweat pouring down his face.

"Girl, close your eyes," I said. She nodded and obeyed. Few seconds later, the man fell on the floor.

"Open them," I said. Slowly, the girl opened her eyes and sighed.

"Thank you," she said. "You saved me," she said almost unemotionally. That's odd for someone who almost got raped.

"Hn," I said.

"S-so you're Itachi?" she asked. She knows me? She's smart enough to see that I'm not one of those 'cosplayer' people. I moved to look at her hand which had my duplicate ring on it.

"You have my ring," I said.

The girl looked at her hand. "I just bought this at a mall. How is this yours?" she asked.

"We fell through a portal and lost our second ring. We were on a mission to recruit eight members by putting the ring on them, but you already have it," I said. "I will be going. Would you like to stay at our place for a bit? It's dark and unsuitable for a young lady like you to be out here at night," I said Odd, why am I nice to her? That has got to be the longest speech I said since I got here.

"Thank you, Uchiha-san," she said unemotionally.

"Hn," I said and walked back.

"I'm Sayuri Taiyono," she said. I nodded. So that's her name. She seems interesting.

* * *

Rita's POV

It was ten o'clock. The Akatsuki were gathered around in almost a meeting formation. I was noticing the Uchiha missing. Or an Uchiha missing if you count Madara.

"Where did Itachi go?" Emi asked. I shook my head and Hikari's eyes widened.

"Oops, I let him walk outside for a bit fifteen minutes ago!" she said.

"Hika-chan!" I said, "Why'd you let him go out on his own?"

"So that he would get hit by a car cause he's blind," Eiko said sarcastically.

"Uh, no . . . Itachi-San can see just fine and if he can't, he'll activate Sharingan, right?" Hikari asked.

"Maybe, let's just hope he gets back," I sighed.

Zetsu said, "Maybe we should **find him**."

"No," Eiko said, "You might get lost."

Hikari turned to Heather, "You've been quiet, Heather-sempai," she said.

"Oh yeah," she said snapping out of her daze. She was probably thinking about something important.

"Tobi is worried about Heather-chan. Is Heather-chan okay?" Tobi asked as he glomped Heather.

She blushed and then quickly pushed him off and fell. "Ouch," she said as she got up.

"D-does Heather-chan not like Tobi?" Tobi asked.

"I like you Tobi, I was just surprised," she said. I narrowed my eyes. I knew that it wasn't the reason she pushed the Uchiha off her. Maybe she just found out.

I heard knocking on the door and went to the door. It was probably just Itachi. I opened the door to see him with the girl I saw this morning.

"Hey Itachi-San. Hey, aren't you the girl I saw this morning at the zoo?" I asked.

The girl nodded. "I'm Rita," I said.

She nodded again. She must be the silent type. "And you are?" I asked.

She looked up at me. Her eyes looked cold almost like Itachi. "Sayuri Taiyono," she said.

"Nice to meet you, Sayuri," I said and held out my hand. She looked at it and didn't shake it.

"Hey you're supposed to shake it," I said annoyed.

"I don't need to know you," she said and pushed her way in.

"How rude," I said. Itachi walked in, too.

* * *

Sayuri's POV

I walked in to the house and saw the Akatsuki along with three other girls I didn't know.

"Hey, who's the new bitch?" Hidan asked.

"Shut up," I said unemotionally again.

"Who're you, un?" asked Deidara.

"Can we eat her?" asked Zetsu.

"Tobi likes girl-chan!" he tried to glomp me, but I side-stepped and he faceplanted on the floor. I almost smiled, but stopped. I didm't know how to react if I smiled. Maybe it would be awkward.

"Nice!" said Kisame and tried to give me a high five, but I didn't return it. I stared at the floor for a little while.

"Another person found the less time wasted. Less money wasted," Kakuzu said. I frowned as I didn't like Kakuzu because of his greediness and attraction to money. Sure he worked hard, but he was also a selfish miser. I didn't like that about people.

"So you have the 'Shu' ring," Sasori said. I nodded.

"Hi, I'm Hikari. What's your name?" the black-haired girl asked. I stared back.

After a moment, the girl with black hair and blue extensions said, "It's obvious that she's not going to tell us. Like another Itachi-san except Itachi's more talkative."

"Hn," Itachi said. I looked at him. Secretly, I liked Itachi a lot after I found out the truth about him. He loved his brother while his brother hated him. It was just like me. My brother loved me while I hated him. I sighed when thinking about Shirosei. I clutched his necklace in my hand.

"Can you tell them, Uchiha-san? I don't feel like talking," I said. He nodded and I felt glad that I didn't have to say anything.

"She's Sayuri Taiyono," he said.

"Hi, Sayuri-san, (un)," the Akatsuki said except Tobi.

He tried to glomp me and said, "Tobi likes Sayu-chan!" I dodged again and there were the same results. For some reason, I liked being around hyper people. It was mainly because they didn't care about how they acted around others whereas I didn't know a thing when it comes to interaction with others. I thought that I could maybe learn from them, but I haven't been getting very far.

"It's Sayuri," I said.

"Does Sayuri-chan not like Tobi?" he pouted.

"No, I don't like you, annoying brat. Hn," I said, hoping that showing some emotion might help.

"NOOO!" he cried as Deidara tried to high-five me, but I gladly declined. I don't want one of those tongues touching me.

The girl with the blue extensions came to me. "I'm Eiko, you seem pretty cool as you're the first person to decline Tobi, well because we're afraid of him," she said.

"If you don't do anything to him, he won't do anything to you," I muttered and walked to the other side of the room.

A girl with blonde hair and blue eyes came up to me. "It seems like you don't talk much," she said. "I'm Emi and if you want to live here, you gotta get used to this noise."

Then, a messy black-haired girl walked up to me.

"Hi, Sayuri-San. I'm Heather. Are you going to stay with us or go home?" she asked.

"I'll call my mom," I said and took out my cell phone and walked into the kitchen.

"Hello?" I heard my mother ask after a couple of seconds of waiting.

"It's me," I said.

"Sayu-chan! We're worried about you! Where are you?" she asked worriedly. I shook my head. Ever since Shirosei died, they replaced him with me. They didn't really care about me . . . they only cared about him.

"At a friend's house. I will be staying for a while," I said lying.

"A friend's house? Why didn't you tell us sooner? We were worried sick," she said. I rolled my eyes.

"Whatever," I said.

"What the hell are you doing at someone else's house? Is there a boy there? You are not staying there for a while! You need to come back tomorrow!" my father screamed into the phone and I flinched at the loud voice not expecting the voice.

"Why should I?" I retorted. "You're only replacing me for Shiro nii-san anyways. I'm twenty. I can take care of myself!" I hung up on my parents.

"Stupid parents," I muttered. "Who needs them?"

"Hn," I looked up to see Itachi looking at me with undecipherable eyes.

"You heard?" I asked. I didn't want him to know . . . no one ever knew except my parents. I never had any close friends to share my secret with. I just didn't know how to react to questioning. How to react to tears.

He nodded. "I won't pry into your business," he said. I nodded gratefully. Luckily, Itachi-san isn't like to pry for information.

"Thank you," I said. I was still shaking and I slid all the way down till I was sitting on the floor. I tried not to cry, but my vision became foggy.

I still remember my nii-san on his deathbed when he told me that he was glad to have met me. I still remember my guilt when he took his last breath and smiled at me. I've always hated him and he made it known to me that I was a burden, but he revealed the truth when he died.

The tears kept coming. Here I was. An unemotional girl crying in front of her favorite fictional character. I thought that he left, but then felt a presence next to me wrap his arms around me and pulled me close. I looked up to see Itachi.

"Itachi-san," I said as I buried my self in his chest and sobbed. His hand was on my back patting it. I didn't know what to do, so I just stayed there.

We stayed there for what felt like hours before Eiko announced that it was time to go. I shakingly stood up, muttering a "thanks" to Itachi and walked to Eiko. She looked surprised to see me and I thought that it was because I was crying, but she handed me a mirror. I looked in and gasped to see Sharingan eyes. Now I have the Sharingan. The thing that made me feel like myself. A person not tied to her family. I had different eyes from my family, now.

I thanked her and said, "Who should I be staying with?"

"I think you should stay with us because you seem to only be comfortable around Itachi-san," she said.

I nodded. "Thank you, Eiko-san," I said.

I followed her, Heather, Zetsu, Tobi, Kisame, and Itachi to the house across the street. It was late and I had no intention of going back home, at least, not for a long while. It will be way too troublesome.

* * *

So, another chapter finished. I didn't really like it and maybe Sayuri was a little OOC. A little? Anyways, review, guys, review!

~Karin Taicho


	6. Madara is Angry Heather is Confused

Okay. Here's the sixth chapter of the Connected rewrite! I personally think that I did a better job before this story got taken off fanfiction. Now, it's not as good.

I have another new character this chapter. I'll have the info about her the next time around. Enjoy this chapter!

* * *

Hikari's POV

I sighed as Rita, Eiko, and I got back home. Sayuri stayed with Heather so she won't be alone with the Akatsuki. They have had some training during the week, though not much. We haven't found anyone this week except for Sayuri. She seemed cool, but she was pretty cold to everybody and only seemed to trust Itachi. I wished that she was more open. Even Heather hasn't touched her yet, so she doesn't know about her past.

"Damn, I think I failed that Algebra test," Rita muttered. Yeah, the algebra teacher gave us a pop quiz.

I also heard that a new girl was moving in today and can't wait to see her. Maybe she has a ring, too. That would be cool. I was going to go to her house. She only lives a block away from here and everybody else is busy taking care of Akatsuki or shopping. I had nothing to do.

I went in my room to see Sasori reading a book on technology on my chair. Deidara was off in the corner on my computer. I didn't really mind people using it as long as it wasn't some crazy stuff they were doing to it. Now that I see it, Deidara was on .

Sasori looked up and I blushed. "Hey," he said.

"What'cha reading?" I asked.

"A book about this world's technology," he said. "It seems interesting. There aren't things like this in our world."

"Like this, un!" Deidara said happily. "Look, it's Hidan being a retard!"

Sasori rolled his eyes. "Who cares? He does that everyday, don't you notice?"

Deidara looked down sheepishly. "Yeah, I guess so."

"S-so, how do you like it here, guys?"

"Cool! I wish there were these computer-thingies in our world. This is hilarious, yeah!" Deidara said.

"It's cool even if it's annoying with those brats around. I was wondering why your parents haven't come here yet," he said and I stiffened. No one had brought up the topic for a long time. Not since . . . a month or two ago.

He noticed and said, "Sorry, I shouldn't pry." Deidara looked up curiously from the laptop.

"I-it's okay," I said while putting on a smile as fake as plastic. "My p-parents just died in a w-war when I was li-little. I'm okay n-ow."

"Sorry," Deidara muttered. "I lost my parents when I was little. And my sister was kidnapped when I was ten."

"Sorry," he said to the both of us, looking down at his book. I frowned a little. Was it just that he really didn't care, or was it that he didn't want to speak?

"It's okay. I'm g-going to see the new girl n-now," I said.

"New girl?" he questioned.

"Yeah, there's so-someone new moving a block away," I said. "Well, see you, Danna. See you, Deidara."

"Bye," I turned the corner and sighed. People always saw me as a happy girl. But they are wrong. I'm just hiding my inner feelings from everyone.

I walked outside and the first thing I heard was a shrill scream from my house . . . in my room from the looks of it. "WHAT THE HELL IS THIS, UN?" Deidara screamed.

I heard loud laughing and crashes here and there. Hopefully, my computer doesn't die or something. I guess Deidara hit the jackpot. I heard another scream of terror ten seconds later. Oh yes, Deidara definitely what I thought he did.

* * *

Emi's POV

I heard a scream from Hikari's room and I immediately threw my book off to the side and ran into her room to see Deidara pointing at Hikari's laptop with a red face. Sasori was off to the corner reading his book only looking up to see Deidara yelling at the computer scream.

"Emi . . . WHAT THE HELL IS THIS, UN?" Deidara roared which attracted the attention of many people downstairs, who began to run up in surprise.

I sighed and walked up to the laptop and sat down, scrolling the page till it was at the top. I scanned the website first. It was . I thought that Deidara might have been offended by one of the fanfictions. Maybe it was Hidan telling him that he was gay or something. I looked at the story stats.

Here it was. Romance and Angst were the themes and I looked at the characters next. Sasori and Deidara. I almost facepalmed. Doesn't Deidara read? I took a look at the summary and scrolled down. I turned bright red at the fanfiction. It was lemon . . . with Deidara and Sasori.

"What is it?" Sasori asked from next to me looking down at the screen.

I yelped and closed the window quickly, but the damage was already done.

Everybody in the room minus Deidara, Sasori, and I were laughing. Even Sayuri and Itachi were chuckling a little. Some of them were rolling on the floor in a ball.

Well, Tobi was another exception. "Huh? Tobi doesn't get it! Why is everyone laughing? Are you are all laughing at Tobi again? NOOO! Tobi is a good boy!" he screamed and ran down the stairs in tears.

Hidan laughed hysterically and pointed at Deidara. "I knew you were gay!" he screamed and held his stomach in pain while he laughed his Jashinist heart out.

Sasori was next to me staring blankly at the laptop. Five seconds later, he screamed in anguish. Everyone shut up and then started to laugh again at the ex-puppet's misfortune. Blushing a deep shade of red, Deidara ran out of the bedroom and locked himself into the bathroom.

Sadly, there was another exception to the laughing: Zetsu.

"What the **fuck are you doing in here?**" Zetsu screamed in rage as he was in the shower.

Deidara screamed again and ran out of the bathroom. Poor him.

Meanwhile, Sasori decided that he needed to practice more. That genjutsu was just terrible.

* * *

Hikari's POV

I walked to the next street, Evergreen Street. There was a Flatrate moving truck there. In the distance, I saw a girl with black hair and red bangs covering her left eye. Her eyes were a cool silvery blue color just like Sayuri's.

I quickly ran up to her when she was carrying a box and asked, "D-do you need any help?"

"Yeah. Thanks," she said. "You can take that box over there if you want." I nodded and grabbed the box and we walked in to her new house. I liked helping out. "You can out that box over there, she said pointing to the wall. I nodded and followed her directions. When I put the package down, she said, "Anyways, I'm Kyoko Sendo. Nice to meet you."

"I'm Hi-Hikari Thompson. Nice to meet you as well," I said.

When we shook hands, I saw that there was a ring on her hand. "You have a ring," I said.

"Oh, yeah. I got this ring at the mall the other day. It's Deidara's ring. I just wanted it," she said.

"Cool, you should come to my h-house later. I'm a big fan of A-akatsuki as you'll see if you come," I said. Yes, we found another person!

"Sure, but after this," she said. I nodded and helped her with getting the boxes out of the truck sure not to use my powers to move the boxes instead. I was amused at the swords that she has. She had some model swords like Zangetsu from Bleach and some custom-made ones.

"Wow, your swords are so cool! Do you use them?" I asked her.

"Me? Of course I use them. Well, I just practice with them sometimes. I know we don't use swords anymore; it's pretty cool to be able to use one. I had a friend who taught me. She was the only person I knew who could fight with a sword. I also learned karate at a young age. I could also teach you some swordsmanship if you want," she said animatedly.

I nodded. "I-I think everyone el-else would want to learn," I said. "The people at my p-place are good at f-fighting."

"Really?" Kyoko asked. "I love fighting and I want to challenge the best!"

I smiled. "I guess you d-do."

* * *

Kyoko's POV

Phew, we're finally done with this! I got up on my feet as did Hikari. "S-so, you're ready to come over to my house?" she asked.

"Sure, I hope it won't be a problem," I said. This girl was pretty cool. She seemed pretty shy, though.

"Of course not, especially b-because my guests aren't as n-nice as you," she said. "It's better to have nicer co-company around."

"Oh, you don't have to bring me over if you already have guests," I said waving my hands about.

"It's okay," she said. "Come on, Kyoko, there are good fighters."

I sighed. This girl was good at persuading people. And I really wanted to fight someone today.

"Let's go," I agreed. We walked to Cherry Blossom Street and came in front of a house. It wasn't that much of a walk. I could hear some yelling from the front. Her friends must be really loud . . . like me.

Hikari frowned and grabbed a key. "Please don't mind the um, guests," she said. She opened the door and I heard the yelling take its place in the next level of loud.

"Shut the fuck up, Hidan!" I heard a tomboyish voice scream. Hidan? Isn't he from Akatsuki? Maybe they were cosplaying, or maybe there actually was this guy called Hidan.

"Bitch, if you stab me again, I will kill you!" a male voice said. I shook my head. They were definitely cosplaying.

"Uh," Hikari said. "Just pretend you heard nothing."

I nodded. I didn't even know why I was going in to someone's house after I heard that, but I did. They were just cosplaying, after all. When I walked in, I saw blood splattered on the wall and a girl with purple hair standing with a bloody knife facing a man with silver hair and pink eyes. He seemed to have a stab wound in his chest. My eyes widened.

The blood looked pretty darn real for a cosplay skit. Way too real. And the fake blood smelled real. I scrunched my nose at the smell of iron. Their hair looked damn real, too. I don't know who the purple-haired girl was trying to be.

"Fuck you, Rita," the silver-haired cosplayer said. Rita? Was this an OC? Random.

Hikari noticed this and screamed, "Hidan! If you would stop bother Rita, she'd stop stabbing you!"

My eyes widened even more. Was Hikari playing along with them? "Uhh, why is your friend stabbing a cosplayer? Is that a real knife?"

"Cosplayer?" some girl said as she came in. She had black hair with blue extensions. "They're real," she said with a bored tone.

The blonde girl from the couch said, "Yup. Real. And the blood and knife is, too. Hidan really is immortal."

Right then, Zetsu popped out of the ground and said, "**Can we eat her? **No, we can't."

"Eek!" I screamed and backed away. My hand grabbed a pear (random, but it was there on the table) and I was going to throw it at him, but realized something odd. The pear was gone . . . gone! I looked at my hand to see it being eaten by a hand mouth thing, kind of like Deidara. "AHHH!" I screamed.

"Who the fuck is screaming, un? My ears are bleeding!" someone said as he walked in. It was Deidara.

He saw me looking at my hand and he saw, too. "Oh my mother fucking shit! You have my ring, yeah!" he said.

Another girl came in and immediately ran over to me and placed her hand on my arm. I saw a pained expression on her face and she let go. She had messy black hair. "Calm down," she said. "You have one of the rings that the Akatsuki have and therefore have one of their powers. You have Deidara's," she said.

I nodded in understanding. At least, I think I know what I'm doing. Then, Tobi (coughMadaracough) ran in and glomped me as I fell over and my head hit the floor. I moaned in pain. "Tobi likes the new girl!" I was gasping for air as he squished me. Damn, he is heavy.

"Get the hell off her, Tobi, un. You Baka!" Deidara said as he lifted Tobi off me.

When I could talk, I pointed my finger to 'Tobi.' "What the fuck is wrong with you, Madara? You would have fucking killed me you dumb shit!"

I took a few deep breaths and felt everyone's eyes on me. Then, I realized what I said. "Oh, shit," I muttered having a very eerie feeling overcome me. This is great . . . just perfect!

Madara stopped bouncing and said, "No, Tobi's not Madara. Tobi's a good boy. Tobi wants to play with girl-chan in his room. Bye bye, Deidara-sempai!" he said as he pulled me along by grabbing my shirt sleeve. I was utterly fucked for lack of a better word or phrase.

I tried screaming, but I couldn't. I saw the girls looking at me with frightened eyes as I was being dragged up the stairs. In a way, I am going to fight the best. I just feel like I'm going to get traumatized.

* * *

Rita's POV

After the girl got dragged upstairs by 'Tobi,' I called all the girls. "Guys, there's a problem," I explained to Sayuri. "This girl got taken away by Madara and we can't do anything about it. Sayuri, can you tell Itachi to come here?"

She nodded silently like normal and went to find the stoic man. A moment later, he came in, worried.

"Hey, Itachi. Madara just took this girl upstairs. We need to help her. Do you think we should tell the other members about Tobi?" I asked. His eyes widened and he shook his head. That was a no.

"I'll go confront him," he said slowly and went up the stairs. He didn't see Deidara tailing behind, wondering why the Uchiha was going out of his way to go upstairs. Maybe it was something about Tobi that he wanted to know. The girl obviously looked scared for her life.

Anyhow, we didn't try to stop the blonde as he went up the stairs.

* * *

Deidara's POV

I saw Rita talking to Itachi and then the damn Uchiha walked up the stairs. I knew something was up, so I followed. He entered a door . . . the second one to the right . . . Rita's room. For a second, I thought that heard a gasp of pain. Frowning, I went to the door and opened it just a crack.

Inside, I saw the Uchiha bastard with this guy with spiky black hair and the girl from earlier. The girl was indeed crying softly and she was on the bed. What was going on? Where was Tobi? "Don't kill her, Madara," Itachi said.

"Why shouldn't I? She knows my secret," the man said. "Besides, no one suspects innocent little Tobi? Do they?"

I gasped. Tobi? This guy was the guy that was under the stupid mask? The girl from before had cuts all over her arms. She seemed that she was keeping herself from crying. I suddenly felt anger for this Madara guy for hurting her. She was beautiful, alright. The way her silvery blue eyes glisten and her hair shines is just art.

The Madara guy cut her yet again as she suppressed a cry. I suddenly burst through the door and pushed the spiky hair guy against the wall. He quickly put on his mask. "Tobi, what the fuck are you doing to her, un?" I screamed.

"None of your concern, Deidara," replied the man in an un-Tobi-like tone. It was deep and mature . . . the complete opposite of Tobi.

"Go, or regret it," I said. Itachi looked unfazed and made no movement to do or say anything.

"Hn," the man simply grunted.

I heard noises in back of me and heard Heather say, "Deidara, let Tobi go! What did he do wrong this time?" Judging from her voice, it sounded like she already knew what was happening.

"He cut this girl!" I said. She looked at the shivering girl next to Tobi and gasped. Her eyes showed shock and anger.

"T-Tobi, don't cut her that way! Let him go, Deidara. I'll speak to him alone!" she said like she was surprised, but I saw from her eyes that she and Tobi will have a very long talk about bad boys. I inwardly grinned, but was somewhat afraid of the man. Heather wasn't, however, as she showed no signs of fear.

However, I wasn't about to let her face him alone . . . actually, maybe I will.

"But he-" I started.

"Go!" I gulped and picked up the girl bridal style and carried her to Hikari's room. I set her down on my bed and she shivered and held me tightly. She was crying a waterfall, now.

"I-I'm scared . . . I-I d-didn't k-now t-that he wo-would. It hurts," she said in a voice that would put even Hikari to shame.

"Shh, it's okay, un," I said. She grabbed onto my shirt even tighter than before. Unsure of what to do, I put my arms around her and she cried into my chest. I stroked her hair and waited for her to fall asleep. Soon, she did, but it took a while.

I smiled softly as I moved a strand of hair from her face.

* * *

Heather's POV

I turned to face Tobi, no Madara. "Tobi," I started. "No, Madara," I corrected and felt myself crash into a wall. He held me by the throat and I found it hard to breathe. I felt the wall behind me crack. Rita wasn't going to be happy with the outcome. I just looked at him as if nothing was wrong. Like there was no crazy murderer holding me up by the neck and looking at me with cold eyes.

"What do you know?" he asked coldly.

"Everything. Your childhood. Creation of the Akatsuki. Tobi, everything. You should have known because you hugged me when we first met," I said. "I even saw you tense a little after I explained my powers. If you were going to do this, why didn't you confront me earlier? Why did you let me go? I could've told anyone, you know."

He pulled out a knife. Damn, a knife now. But I'm not afraid. I can't be afraid of Tobi, I don't know why. I didn't even flinch when he cut my arm once. "Hm," he said. "You're not scared. You seem to not have told anyone about my true identity yet. That is surprising."

"No, it isn't. I'm not the type of person to be talking about private matters behind someone's back," I said. "And yes, I'm not scared of you. I don't even know why myself. You know, most girls would've pissed their pants already." I smiled a little. I neglected to tell him that all of the girls already knew who he was. It was the matter of the Akatsuki being clueless when it comes to 'Tobi's' inner persona.

"I can kill you," he said frowning. His grip on my throat tightened and he held the knife close to my throat. I frowned as blood started to drip from my neck. I was bleeding. I looked blankly into his eyes for a moment. My mind started to think about something else like where the hell Madara got the knife from. I closed my eyes and yelled at myself in my head to pay more attention.

"I know that," I finally said, thinking that he would maybe kill me or at least torture me, or something. Instead, Madara simply let go of my neck and

"Hn, you're interesting. I don't think I should kill you. Yet," he said. I fell to the floor as he leaned backwards. He put on his mask and resumed the happy-go-lucky persona of Tobi as he hopped out of the room like he didn't torture two girls ten minutes before.

"Tobi is coming down to eat dinner, now!" he screamed loudly.

I sighed, unable to move. I was just sitting there. I could still feel my heart beating rapidly in my chest as I placed my hand over my heart. There was a big question I had to ask myself. Why wasn't I afraid?

* * *

Sorry for all of the POV jumps in the chapter. Please review! Thanks.

~Karin Taicho


	7. Itachi is the Badass Nerd PlanMaker

Here's the seventh installment of Connected rewrite! This chapter doesn't have a new character and a six month time skip in the middle. I really didn't like that, but I had to put it in. Here is the characterization of Kyoko.

Kyoko Sendo

Age: 19

Characteristics: She has black hair which goes down to her shoulder blades with bangs that cover her left eye. Her bangs are dyed red and she has silvery blue eyes.

Personality: Kyoko has very spontaneous behavior. She always loves a fight and is somewhat of a pyromaniac. She likes using swords and knows karate.

History: Her parents passed away in a house fire that many people said was caused by Kyoko. Alone, she went to live on her own and just moved in to Evergreen Street.

Enjoy! Note that there is fluff in this chapter! I do not own Naruto or Akatsuki!

* * *

Kyoko's POV

I was running in the path of darkness. A fire was burning behind me as I ran away. I turned around to hear the screams of my mother and father. As the voices died away, my view faded to black and I was alone in a spotlight. I began to run away again before I bumped into something, or someone. I felt arms grab me and I was pulled further into the dark towards a mask. The swirly orange lollipop mask was staring into me. The red Sharingan lit up and bore into my eyes.

I heard a happy-go-lucky voice say, "Kyoko-chan is a bad girl! Tobi will punish her!" I widened my eyes before realizing that it was Madara.

A big hand towered over me as it slammed down moments later towards me.

"AHHH!" I screamed and opened my eyes. I looked around to see an unfamiliar room. I saw the black-haired girl from yesterday and Sasori sleeping. I tried to get up, but felt myself unable to because of something restraining me. Or somebody. I turned to my left to see a certain blonde terrorist facing me. If I had leaned in closer by mistake, I would have kissed him. That was how close we were.

His hands were around my slim waist. I blushed at the close proximity and looked at his hands which were licking at my back. I turned as red as Sasori's hair. Even redder, if possible and looked at his face. He looked so cute when he was asleep. I almost squealed like a fangirl, but calmed down.

I just closed my eyes and pretended to be asleep before I heard shuffling next to me. Maybe Deidara was waking up. He mumbled incoherently and when I opened my eyes, he opened his. I gazed into his blue eyes which were staring back into my silvery blue ones. There was a silence. . . another gay baby was born.

"Kya!" I screamed and slapped him in the face, of course, because I didn't know he was awake. I stumbled backwards and fell off the bed by mistake and with a thump, I hit the floor. "Ouch," I muttered as I massaged my bottom. Poor me and my clumsiness.

"Ouch, un," I heard him say. He was rubbing his cheek in pain. I could faintly see a red mark on his face where I hit him. Did I really hit that hard? "Hey, you okay, girl?" he asked looking at me.

I quickly nodded then said, "Why were you next to me?"

"Well yesterday, you fell asleep while crying and when I tried to move your arms, you wouldn't let go, un," he said. "Your slap hurt like a mother fucker!"

"O-oh, sorry Deidara," I said blushing and rubbing my head nervously. "I was just surprised."

Then, I heard more shuffling from behind me and someone say, "What are you doing?" in a bored, but tired voice.

"Eek!" I turned around to see brown eyes staring at me: Sasori. "Don't scare me! I just fell off the bed!"

"Whatever . . . had fun, brat?" Sasori asked boredly. I blushed and Deidara did, too. Then I wondered . . . did Sasori know about Madara? It's safe to assume he didn't. I didn't want to risk it.

"Danna, we didn't do anything, un. She just fell asleep and-"

"You ended up next to her in the morning," Sasori interrupted Deidara's seemingly frantic denial. It was true, though.

"Shut up, un!" Deidara yelled.

"Ahh! The gummy bears of doom!" I heard a voice scream. We all shut up and spun our heads towards the girl on the bed. It was the Hikari girl from yesterday. "Help me, Rita! No! Danna, don't die. Eek! They're going to squish us!" she screamed in her high voice. It was weird and awkward.

I turned to see Sasori blushing a little. We looked at Sasori as he frowned and rose up from the floor where he was sleeping. Bending down over her, he gently shook her shoulder.

Suddenly, she screamed and shot up from her bed and what I saw shocked me and scared me.

I widened my eyes. Was this for real?

* * *

Sasori's POV

"Shut up, un!" the brat said and I was about to retort when I heard a scream.

"Ahh! The gummy bears of doom!" I turned around to see Hikari screaming about evil gummy bears. I raised my eyebrow. What kind of dream was she having? "Help me, Rita! No! Danna, don't die!"

I actually think my heart heated faster after she said that. She actually cared about me. "Eek! They're going to squish us!"

Never mind. It's not like anyone cares for me. I'm alone without any family. I just have Akatsuki. I shrugged my shoulders and rose up from my sitting position on the floor and gently shook her shoulder to wake her up. As I did, I looked to see her angelic fac— Sasori, stop thinking about her like that! I shook my head a little and shook her again. I did succeed, but the outcome . . . was interesting.

"Eek!" she screamed as she opened her eyes and sat up quickly before I could even react. It was as if everything was happening in what the girls called "slow-mo". I felt something on my lips and saw the girl's eyes widened. I barely realized what was going on before she quickly pushed away. For some reason, I felt myself missing her soft lips. I touched my own in shock.

"S-sorry, Sasori no Danna, I-I'm so sorry!" she screamed with her face red and went underneath her covers.

Deidara looked like he was choking on air while the new girl was just staring, her jaw opening and closing in shock. She had a mixture of surprise and do I sense a little fear?

What the hell just happened? I bet my face was just as red as my own hair. She kissed me! I gently shook Hikari. "Hey, Hikari, what's up?" I asked oddly.

She sounded if she was crying. I felt a sudden urge to comfort her. I wasn't the comforting type of person. "D-don't some near me. Y-you h-hate me don't you?" she asked.

I found myself genuinely confused. Hate? "Hate? Why would I hate you for? You made a mistake. I'll forgive you," I said. Odd because if some else did that, I would have already turned them into a puppet by now . . . a human one.

I heard a sigh of relief from the blonde brat and a gasp from the girl like she wasn't expecting me to do that. Maybe that was where the fear came from. Maybe she believed that I would kill the girl. There was no reason to do that . . . she was my student. Then again, she hasn't heard of our plans yet.

"Really?" I heard Hikari said.

"Yeah," I replied. She suddenly got up and hugged me. I blushed.

"Thank you, Sasori no Danna!" she said. I sweatdropped. She changes her attitude so fast.

"Y-yeah. You're welcome," I said and she let go.

"Oh, I'm sorry for u-uh kissing you and hugging you," she said. "U-uh I'll see you later!" She ran out before I could say anything.

I then heard laughter behind me. "Haha! You should have seen your face, un! You were so red, un and that face was so funny, un!" the brat said.

"Shut up before I turn you into a puppet," I said and he became silenced right away.

"Hey, I thought you were going to turn her into a puppet," the girl said like I expected her to.

I raised an eyebrow, "Would you have wanted me to?" I asked.

She shook her head. "No, but you seemed like the type of person to do that. Sasori. . . do you like her?" she asked.

I blushed. "No, I don't like her. Who are you anyways?"

"Haha! You're in denial! Anyways, I'm Kyoko Sendo. I live on Evergreen Street down the block. I should be getting home now. I mean, I should train, but I have to do something about these hands," she said looking down at her hands.

"You should put gloves over them, yeah," Deidara said. "Hikari-chan gave me some, un. I could give you a pair."

"That would be nice," Kyoko said. Deidara looked into the closet and dug out some fingerless gloves. "Thanks, Deidara-san."

"Just Deidara, un," he said. I smirked and got up.

"Deidara. Tell her about the purpose of these rings. She only knows that she has the powers. Tell her about the mission, too. I'm going to get breakfast. Those pop tart things do taste good," I said and walked out on them.

* * *

Eiko's POV (6 month time skip, sorry!)

It has already been six months since Akatsuki arrived at our house and we still haven't found the last two new members. It was funny how we found the first six in a week while these people take more than six months to find. It was weird.

By now, we have been practicing our taijutsu as much as possible as well as climbing walls in our houses and practicing elemental jutsus as many times as possible without being noticed by neighbors and our "best" friend, the truancy officer.

Heather and I recently got jobs working at McDonald's. Not a place of my choice, but at least we got some money. Hikari's fortune wasn't endless. Emi worked in Kmart, to her displeasure. Things were good and normal, if you don't count Sasori sneaking out at times in the middle of the night. That's what Emi, Hikari, and Rita say.

Most importantly, as of two days, we all felt bad for one reason, especially me: Sayuri.

Since her parents were too worried, Sayuri was sent home two days ago, not the way she wanted to be. Her parents came here to pick her up. Now, she's grounded for staying with us. I felt bad and I blamed it all on myself because of my foolishness.

*Flashback*

It was just another normal day as we went to the supermarket. Of course, at the supermarket, the Akatsuki had to use their Henge no Jutsu (Transformation Jutsu.)

At the store, we bought some more pop tarts because of Sasori and Hidan's obsession with them and some cereal and milk. Pancake batter was also in the equation along with the many other stuff we need. At the end, Kakuzu was complaining about the amount of money that we used (even though it wasn't his) and Hidan cursed out at the cashier who in return cursed back. Hidan took him to the bathroom. Only Jashin knows what happened in there. He came out feeling happier than usual.

Anyways, when we got back, the doorbell was ringing and Sayuri went to answer. When it was answered, she quickly slammed it shut. Her eyes were as they were normally, but we could sense some urgency in them. Since Itachi, Hikari, Sasori, and I heard, we went to the door to ask us what was wrong.

"My parents are here," she said after waiting. Her voice was small. She was shivering a little. She disliked her parents a lot. She became a lot more open during these few months here. I was surprised her parents even allowed her to stay here for six months. She trusted us, now.

"How did they find out where you were?" I asked, concerned.

"Tracking device on my cell," she said and I nodded in understanding.

"What's wrong?" Hikari asked unsure of what it meant.

"They want to take me back," she said.

Sasori frowned, "What's wrong with that?"

"I was gone too long and when they find out that the Akatsuki or even that boys are staying, they'll be so mad," she said.

Hikari rubbed her back as the stoic girl shook. "It's okay," she muttered.

The door was being knocked continuously and I was being annoyed at the sound. "Hey, Sayu-chan, Sayu-chan! Open up!" her mother said.

"Open the damn door, or I'll break it down! If there's a boy, I'll rip his head off!" her father said. My eyes hardened a little. Her father really was a jerk.

Sasori said nothing and quickly left after twitching. He wasn't about to get his head ripped off. It was enough trouble when he was a puppet. He had to spend hours putting on the head securely, he said to us once, explaining the steps to making a puppet. Guess what he did was right, though. Sigh, over-protective parents. I don't have that problem anymore.

Sayuri looked at Itachi, "Itachi-san, go, I don't want my dad getting mad at you," she said emotionlessly.

He nodded a little hesitantly and left after saying, "Hn, take care of yourself."

I smiled at how caring the male stoic could be and took a deep breath. I put my door on the handle and I could feel Sayuri tense up. She nodded at me to open the door, but I felt that she didn't want me to.

The knocking jarred me from my thoughts and I quickly opened the door. Standing outside were her parents. Her mother was short and had black hair tied in a bun. She was in a small dress and despite her appearance, she seemed genuine. Her father, on the other hand, had messy black hair and was dressed in a suit. He had lines on his forehead and was currently walking through the door, brushing by me as if I wasn't even there. I turned around.

The first thing the father did was slap her. She fell to the floor with her hand to her face. She was shaking, but not crying. I immediately felt guilty for opening the door. My anger was boiling over already.

"Hey, I know you're mad at your daughter, but at least treat her better than this!" I said to her father without thinking. I'm too protective over my friends; at least that's one of my weaknesses. Next thing I knew, I felt a pain on my face as I was slapped back. I crashed against someone. I looked up, groaning in pain. It was Zetsu, who materialized outside. Luckily, her parents didn't seem to notice that he melted through the door and just suspected that he was coming by to visit, or something. He was in a henge.

"Hey, Zetsu," I said, "Stupid aren't I?" Hikari rushed towards me in shock at what the man did. Sayuri was on the floor still shaking, she was still in the position she was in earlier.

The mother said, "Stop hurting them, you don't even know them!"

"I don't care! You don't tell me how to teach my own daughter, little bitch," he screamed. Bad idea.

I was almost at him, ready to go, but Zetsu was holding me back. "Stop moving, **bitch**. Calm down!" he exclaimed.

Itachi suddenly appeared out of nowhere with an unreadable look on his face. "I'll speak," he said to Zetsu and the man nodded.

He walked up to Sayuri's father, "You know better to treat your daughter like that. She has been staying here to avoid you and likes it a lot better here. If you wish to take her back, you may do so, but take your daughter's happiness into consideration. Also, if you hurt her in front of me again, I won't forgive you."

Sayuri and I widened our eyes. Itachi just spoke a lot more than normal and he did it to protect someone . . . someone other than Sasuke.

The man grew madder than he already was and said, "I could do whatever I want to my daughter! And you, boy, stay away from her! She can't come back here ever again!"

He grabbed Sayuri by her arm, pulling her off the floor. "Say bye to your friends, Sayuri, you won't see them again!"

Her eyes widened in shock as she turned to us and looked us all in the eyes silently, before being jerked back by her father.

"Time's up," he said without giving a shit.

"B-bye," she muttered. Hikari glared angrily at Sayuri's father.

"Don't say that. Sayuri, we'll see each other. As long as you keep the ring," she whispered to Sayuri. She nodded.

Sayuri waved at us and looked at Itachi, "Thank you, Itachi-san," she said and was out of the room before Itachi could say anymore. I dropped down to my knees.

"It's my fault," I muttered. "If only I didn't open that door," I said.

I felt arms around me again. It was Zetsu. "It's okay. **I wanted to eat him**," he said.

I smiled. "Thanks, Zetsu."

We left to see Itachi still looking at the door thoughtfully, his fists clenched tightly. Poor Itachi.

*Flashback end*

"Hey," Heather said. We looked up. It was breakfast time and we didn't speak much. "Maybe we should. . . break her out of the house," she said. She wasn't at the scene and when she came here, she immediately felt something wrong and rushed over to touch my hand.

My head perked up at the idea. Maybe . . .

"Crazy bitch, you'd think that'd work?" Hidan asked.

"Don't talk to me like that, you Jashinist bitch!" she yelled.

"Tobi thinks it's a good idea!"

"Hey, calm down," Kyoko said.

"Shut up, mind your own business, whore," Hidan said.

"Fuck you!" Kyoko screeched. By this time, we got used to Heather's bipolarism and Kyoko's spontaneous behavior.

"Whatever," Hidan muttered. And the silence ensued. I looked at the floor. Was that out of the question?

"Good idea," Sasori said, breaking the silence. Everybody looked at him quizzically.

"But how are we going to break Sayu-chan out?" Tobi asked.

"I don't know," Heather said. "I know she lives all the way in Staten Island in somewhere called Serenity Avenue, but that's it. I've looked into her past and know the layout of her house. That's it."

"Cool," Emi muttered. "Now we just need a way in."

"Why don't we ask Uchiha, un? He's the smart one!" Deidara exclaimed. Itachi sort of glared at the bomber who didn't seem to notice. We all looked at him expectantly as he looked nowhere in particular.

"Fine," he said finally. I let out a sigh of relief. He would make us a plan. We crowded around him. "Give me space," he growled, spreading his arms around so that we wouldn't cut off his circulation. Even Tobi moved back

"We should do this as training for the girls. We all need to have a part in this," Sasori suggested. "Just to make it fair."

Itachi nodded at the ex-puppet. "Sasori and Hikari should make a human-like puppet of Sayuri and control it. Kisame should use his water power sail us over to the other side." We (the girls) looked at him oddly. Looking at us, he asked, "This Staten Island you speak of . . . it _is_ an island, right?"

We nodded. "Then why are you looking at me like that?"

"Um, I-Itachi, we could use the Staten Island Ferry," Hikari said.

"Hn. Kisame, go cook us some food for the trip. This may take long," he said. Really? Kisame can cook? "And also, Deidara and Kyoko can make us birds to fly across instead. We can't risk getting seen on the ferry."

"Yeah, un!" Deidara agreed happy that he has a chance to blow up more than a simple clay worm.

"Hai, hai, Itachi-san!" Kisame said as he walked into the kitchen with a smirk on his face. He was probably up to know good as Emi and I looked at him full of suspicion.

"Kisame can cook?" Emi asked cautiously. Itachi nodded.

"He better not cook anything expensive!" Kakuzu said.

"Shut up cheapstake!" Hidan said. "You're not even paying!"

"Why you," Kakuzu growled.

"Be quiet, you two. Now, Kakuzu will make sure that we get our equipment," Itachi said. Kakuzu grumbled something about saving money. Yadda yadda yadda. No one cares about it.

"Hidan and Rita will sacrifice anything they need to like anyone who sees us breaking in," Itachi said. Hidan and Rita high fived at their luck.

"Moving on, Zetsu and Eiko will go through the house with me," the Uchiha said. Zetsu and I nodded in understanding.

"And Tobi and Heather, go stall for us," Itachi said.

"When should we go?" Heather asked curiosly.

Itachi smirked. "Tonight, hn. Also, draw a map, Heather. We'll need it." And from then, we schemed and laughed evilly.

* * *

Itachi comes up with a failproof plan. Join our bad guys next time as they save Sayuri from her father.

~Karin Taicho.


	8. Saving Sayuri

Hi guys! This is the 8th chapter of Connected rewrite! Enjoy the chapter!

* * *

Sayuri's POV

After my father dragged me out of the house, I was immediately pulled into our car and the chauffeur was told to go home. I had tears in my eyes as I was pushed into the car with nowhere near enough speed to get out of the car even though I became considerably faster. I wasn't the fastest person in the world and my father was able to prove that by slamming the car door as I was beginning to stick my foot out to block it.

I hissed a little in pain and glared through the window at my unfazed, but angry father. I didn't choose to show my anger before mainly because I didn't know what to do. Itachi and the others wanted me to show my feelings more and now was the perfect opportunity.

My mother looked extremely worried and she got in the front of the car next to the chauffeur. My father took his seat next to me by opening the other door. By then, I didn't even bother to escape. Angrily, my father slammed the car door again.

"Gin, don't slam the door!" my mother chastised lightly.

It was as if my father didn't hear a single word she said. At least, he didn't show it on his face. Instead, he turned towards me as the car began to drive off to Staten Island.

My father slapped me again. My face didn't move to the side like before. It wasn't as hard, but the sound resonated through the car. I didn't move at all. I didn't bother to look into his hate-filled eyes. "You were asked six months ago if there are any boys living with you and you said no. Don't lie to your mother, got that?" he barked.

I didn't answer him, but simply looked forward, looking at the moving scenery. I was a free bird, but now, I in the cage I call home . . . again. I didn't pay attention to the useless rambling until he said something.

"And don let me see that red eyed bitch ever again!"

My fist trembled and I forced myself to look into his eyes. They were not caring . . . it was far from it. That's right. I was still simply a replacement for my brother. For Shirosei. There was nothing going to change that.

"Gin, don't be so harsh on her. Sayu-chan, we're only worried about you," my mother said.

I nodded numbly, my fist still shaking. I was beginning to relax. I thought that it was over. Once my mother entered her opinion in anything, my father would stop rambling and shut up.

But he wasn't done yet.

"I saw that there were three assholes and two girls there. Are you guys whores or something? What a disgrace!"

My head shot up and I looked at him hard in the eye for five seconds exact, with my Sharingan activated. The tomoes were spinning furiously. A shocked look flashed through my father's eyes, but then they narrowed.

"What the hell are y—"

Slap. My father's eyes widened as I slapped him hard. Everything became quiet. No one moved.

"Don't _ever_ call me or my friends a 'whore' ever again, or you'll regret it," I said angrily. I then deactivated them and looked back towards the scenery like nothing happened. Like my father didn't slap me two times or my brother died. It was as if it was better when I was ignored.

He insulted my friends for kami's sake and he looked like I wouldn't be bothered if it was true. It was unbelievable.

"How da—"

"Please be quiet, Gin. Don't you think she's had enough for the day?" my mother asked.

My father grumbled something incoherent and then muttered, "Okay."

I almost sighed in relief. It was weird standing up to my father. I have never done such a thing, but I felt happy that I did it. Maybe Rita and Heather were getting to me a little. At the thought of my friends made me sadden. Will I ever see them again?

I shook my head and smiled a little. Hikari promised that we'll see each other again and I know it'll happen.

I turned away from them and looked out the window. Before, Itachi-san protected me. That must mean that he cared for me. Hopefully, it would mean that he liked me. I thought about my father. He wouldn't allow it. I sighed and remembered something about why the Akatsuki came to this world in the first place. It was to find recruits and I was one of them. They would look for me. Definitely. I felt a burst of confidence. I knew that they were going to come.

I smiled a little and my father caught it, but didn't do anything much about it. He just muttered something under his breath and then we sat in silence for the duration of the car drive.

Time passed and we finally arrived home. Home, not much anymore. My father dragged me in and set me down on the floor. No, that's not right. Throw me halfway across the room? More like it. I landed on the floor in silence, not making a noise except the creaking of the floor under my weight.

He was probably going to yell at me again despite my mother telling to stop before. At home, it was completely different. It wasn't like outside where my father can hold in his anger. It was one of those "honor" things about how families are represented through the youth.

Basically, he couldn't yell at me outside or else his family would lose dignity. It wasn't like we had it in the first place, though.

"You! Because you left for six months and even lied to your mother, we are locking you in your room for a month! Don't even think about leaving because we'll lock up everything!" my father roared.

I didn't answer verbally, but simply nodded along. My father wasn't happy.

"Hittori! Get into this room right now and lock her up in her room!" my father yelled.

Hittori was the butler in my house. He was old and probably the only one I would miss when I leave for the Narutoverse. He was always nice to me and became the first person I opened up to.

He walked in and pulled me off the floor gently. He then urged me to my room. "Ms. Sayuri, be good to your father. Please let this be the last time you get in trouble. You know he misses you and protects you because you are his only child now. Here's a cookie. Be good," Hittori said giving me a chocolate chip cookie as he locked the door.

I sighed and looked at my room again. It was kept nicely even though I had left for half a year. Maybe my parents made Hittori clean all of it every day. They had to be nicer on the guy.

I walked over to my bed and laid down, looking at the ceiling. Someone will come for me. The cookie laid forgotten next to me.

* * *

No one's POV

After Itachi's announcement, everybody for working. Sasori was teaching Hikari how to make her own puppet. Zetsu and Eiko were practicing melting into walls and the floor as well as stealth. Tobi was giving Heather a lesson on stalling . . . something Tobi was good at. Deidara was teaching Kyoko how to mix her chakra with clay. Kisame was cooking sushi bento boxes. Itachi was studying Heather's hand-drawn sketch of Sayuri's house. Kakuzu was currently buying swords for Hidan and Rita who was practicing with bamboo sticks which they were easily breaking. Emi . . . well Emi was also practicing kenjutsu with Hidan and Rita.

Why bamboo sticks? Kyoko didn't want them using her swords and gave them the pieces of bamboo before Kakuzu ventured out to his greatest enemy, the store.

* * *

It was 8 pm. . .

The Akatsuki were on the roof of Hikari's house when Deidara and Kyoko were mixing their chakra with the clay that Kakuzu bought. Poor miser. He looked absolutely exhausted as he spent $300 for the clay and the swords. How did he get the money in the first place? Well, he happened to "borrow" some money from everybody in Times Square. No, he didn't beg for any, he was just very fortunate that everyone was kind enough not to hide their wallet anywhere.

In total, the miser gathered about a thousand dollars. Hard to believe.

Kisame gave them their bento boxes for them to eat on the bird for dinner and wished them good luck, though he was sad because he wasn't very influential in the plan. He was seen walking back down while munching on California Rolls. It was the typical Kisame eating sushi.

The Akatsuki then got on the birds and flew towards Sayuri's house. Everybody opened their bento boxes to see sushi and all sweat dropped. It was obvious that Kisame had made it since he put a motherly note in each one. Itachi was staring at the piece of paper blankly as others started to laugh about his note.

_Be safe, Itachi-kun_

_~Kisame_

With their own two eyes, the rest of the group crossed out Kisame and wrote mother.

Hidan started snickering loudly and Itachi shot a glare at them. He didn't activate the Sharingan, but his glare was enough to make Hidan shiver a little. They stopped laughing and looked at their own notes.

"What's with Jaws and sushi, un?" Deidara muttered. Hikari visibly paled.

Sasori noticed and said, "What's wrong?"

"I-I can't eat fish!" Hikari said.

"Dammit! The stupid blue shark forgot!" Rita muttered angrily.

"It's okay," Hikari muttered.

"**You should try eating people.** Don't tell her that!" Zetsu suggested/argued.

"California Rolls don't have fish," Eiko muttered. "It's fake crab meat."

"Aaand . . . fake crab meat is awesome! I loved how he packed so much soy sauce and wasabi!" Emi exclaimed.

Heather scrunched up her nose. "Wasabi is too spicy for me," she added. "He should have added some dessert, but he'd probably just make some fried fish for the dessert."

"Tobi loves dessert!" Tobi exclaimed, making everybody cringe at his loud voice.

"Oh, sorry guys! I'll just eat the California Rolls!" Hikari said brightly, creating an awkward moment as she started eating the rolls, dabbing each piece into soy sauce.

Sasori looked over at the girl and put some of his food in her bento. "Here. I don't really like California Rolls, so you can have mine," he said in a bored fashion.

"Thank you, Danna!" Hikari exclaimed and ate them as well. Deidara and Hidan eyed them with a smirk.

After they finished eating, they had already reached the house. It was a large one. Somewhat like a mansion, but not quite. There was no electronic gate, making it easier for them to sneak in.

The Akatsuki hopped off the bird and onto the ground, but Deidara and Kyoko stayed on the clay birds. They were on lookout as well as Hidan and Rita. The immortals were laughing and talking loudly.

Meanwhile, Tobi knocked on the door. Heather was there with him and some pizza. They smirked, well, Madara smirked from underneath the mask, but no one knew that. However, wherever and whenever they got the pizza, the world may never know.

A sleepy and grumpy Gin walked up to the door in his night clothes. He rubbed his eyes and cursed his luck. Who the hell knocks on the door at like midnight? When he opened the door, he was greeted by people who were carrying boxes of pizza as well as smaller boxes. The smell of pizza wafted into the room and into his nose. He scrunched his nose. For some peculiar reason, the grumpy old man hated the food. Tobi and Heather didn't know that.

However, when the door was opened, Heather had to refrain from laughing. Gin was only wearing a robe with his red polka dot boxers showing underneath. Luckily, the man didn't notice and his angered was therefore not tripled.

"Good night, sir, you have ordered three cheese pizzas and two breadsticks. Your order costs $40," Heather said.

Gin grumbled, "I ordered no fucking pizza! I hate it! Nasty!" Well, someone was angry. He ignored the fact that the pizza was so overpriced.

"Tobi likes the boxers!" Tobi screamed, also completely ignoring the fact that the man he was faced with had no interest in pizza and that he was screaming profanities.

Meanwhile

"Seems like they're doing good. **Man I wanted to eat him**!" Zetsu complained after seeing the distracting that Heather and Tobi were doing.

"After this, I'll let you eat a hobo off the street though I don't think they would taste very good," Eiko mumbled. "I don't think _any_ people taste good."

"Thanks," Zetsu said thinking about his reward and drooling a little.

"Come on guys," Emi said as they sneaked around the house. Zetsu grabbed Sasori and Itachi and melted through the ceiling along with Eiko, Emi, and Hikari. Once through, they reached Sayuri's room.

They melted through the ceiling to see Sayuri looking out the window, crying a little. Itachi went to her while Sasori and Hikari set up the puppet. Zetsu and Eiko waited for them to be done and Emi stood guard in front of the door just in case.

Itachi touched Sayuri's shoulder and she jumped. "I-Itachi-san?" she asked not noticing that the Akatsuki were in here before. She was already trained in sensing people, but she was too distracted to pay attention. She looked at him with her silvery blue eyes watery. She quickly wiped them off.

He nodded. "We're leaving."

"But if my dad finds out, then what will happen?" Sayuri muttered. She didn't seem afraid of her father anymore, but she was just worried. What if he did find out that she wasn't around? Would he call the police?

"Sharingan," Itachi said simply.

"Don't kill him!" Sayuri said. "Even though he's bad and abusive, he's still my father." Although what has happened in the past, she couldn't completely hate her father.

"Hn."

Eiko was about to comfort her, but Zetsu stopped her and shook his head. Zetsu pulled her in for a hug and looked at Itachi thinking about what he would say next.

"Okay, but if he hurts you—" Itachi started.

"Then, it won't matter!" she exclaimed.

"You know, after my brother, I care about you the most, I don't know why, but I don't ever want to see you hurt like that," Itachi confessed. Sayuri widened her eyes.

"Really?" she whispered. Itachi nodded.

Emi leaned back against the wall and smirked.

Hikari smiled as she finished placing the puppet. Sasori looked at the two.

Sayuri opened her eyes wide and nodded. "Itachi-san."

"Shh, we're getting out. If your father finds out, I'm not letting you go," Itachi said. Sayuri nodded again.

Zetsu let go of Eiko. Eiko ran towards Sayuri and hugged her. "I'm so sorry, I shouldn't have opened the door," she said.

"It's okay, Eiko. My father was going to break the door, anyways," Sayuri said. Zetsu patted her on the back and Hikari and Emi hugged her, too. Sasori gave her a smirk. Eiko grabbed Emi, Hikari, and Sayuri and disappeared underneath while Zetsu grabbed Itachi and Sasori and did the same.

They quickly snuck out of the house to see Tobi and Heather still arguing with Gin. Yes, Tobi was arguing with the man.

"Sir, the pizza was addressed to this house, there was no mistake," Heather said frowning. "Also, since we already brought it here, you have to pay the fee whether or not you like the pizza."

"Tobi doesn't lie, it says that the pizza needs to be sent here!" Tobi exclaimed.

"Fine, I'll pay, but I don't know why a Dominoes will hire some mentally retarded guy with a lollipop mask on and a girl with anger issues," he said paying the money. Heather snatched it out of his hand in anger.

Madara twitched inside the mask and refrained himself from killing the man and Heather snapped.

"Okay, sir, I was being nice, but not anymore," Heather said. "First, don't use that tone with me. I don't care if you're an old man. I don't give a shit about respect unless that person respects me. Second, don't insult me. And third, don't ever insult my friends, which include Tobi, here, understand, hag?" Heather asked.

"Standing up for your boyfriend, eh? Good luck with that bitch, lollipop!" Gin said as he slammed the door.

Heather burned with fury as Tobi refrained her from breaking down the door. "Heather-chan! Stop that!" Tobi yelled. Madara winced a little on the inside. He didn't use his muscles for a long time and restraining Heather became a hard task.

When she screamed, "Mother fucking asshole!" Tobi leaned into her ear. "I don't like Tobi like that!"

It made him wince again because through the six months that he met her, she had been interesting, but he never knew he could feel this way towards a girl. He might be developing feelings for her. He shook his head and proceeded to lean in and take off a part of his mask.

"Be quiet, Heather-chan," Madara whispered into her ear while gently nipping on it, which made Heather shiver.

"P-pervert," she said blushing. "Fine, I-I'll shut the hell up." Luckily for Madara, no one saw his actions.

When the masked man withdrew, Heather turned around and did a spinning back kick to Madara's stomach. He dodged it and no one saw this either. Heather stomped away blushing an unhealthy red color. Madara shrugged and hopped after her.

Hikari let out a whistle and everybody came to the tree next to the house.

"Sayuri-chan is back!" Tobi squealed as he tried to glomp Sayuri. Keyword: tried. Itachi stood in front and sent him flying back wards against the trunk. From above, Deidara silently thanked Itachi for silencing the hyper boy. He would never admit the Uchiha's help out loud.

Everybody else sweat dropped. "Hey, Sayuri, what's up?" Rita asked.

"Hey, bitch!" Hidan said which earned him a punch to the head by Sayuri.

Heather asked, "Hey, Sayuri, you okay?"

Sayuri could only nod. Hikari whistled again and the clay birds came towards them.

"Hey, Sayuri, un!" Deidara said.

"I knew you guys could do it!" Kyoko said. Sayuri smiled. The Akatsuki got on the birds and flew away into the night.

They enjoyed the beautiful scenery of the city at night. The Akatsuki had never really seen it as pretty as then. They were awed at the lights and the colors. Poor Kisame. He didn't have a part in this.

Then, Akatsuki talked on about the conversation between Gin, Tobi, and Heather and had laughs . . . a lot of them.

Sayuri smiled and out her head on Itachi's chest. It was good to finally have real friends.

* * *

Meanwhile

In a dark room, two figures stood. One with a smirk on his face, the other, bowing down.

"Heh, I finally found you, little girl," a voice said.

"Boss, are we going to kill her?" another voice asked.

"Yes, and kill her other friends, too. I will soon finish what I had started seven years ago," person number one said. "Now, give them a month. Only one more month to live."

"Hai, boss!"

* * *

The next day

Eiko sighed when she ran into school with one minute to spare. Quickly, she ran up to her homeroom after saying a quick bye to Hikari and Rita. She slid into her seat, not noticed by the teacher who was getting ready by writing on the chalkboard.

Rita was oversleeping again and Hikari and Eiko didn't want to leave her behind.

Since the teacher was busy writing. Very slowly, may I add, Eiko was able to finish her homework in time because the Akatsuki were busy yesterday. Eiko was happy that she could help bring back Sayuri.

The principle knocked on the door within five minutes of the starting time for class and the teacher was still writing on the board. The other kids ceased their speaking and watched the principle come in.

He wasn't alone, however and the teacher nodded at the principle after he spoke to her. Then, he motioned for someone to come in.

There were two girls. One girl had blue hair which was tied up in two ponytails. She had blue eyes and headphones around her neck. Something was strapped to her leg and she was pretty tall for her age. Most of all, she looked bored as hell. The second girl had brown eyes and shoulder length brown hair. She looked nervous and wouldn't stop fidgeting.

"Class, you have two new classmates," the teacher said. Then, she turned to them. "Now introduce yourselves."

The bluenette and the brunette looked at each other and the bluenette sighed and started to speak first.

"I'm Tsuki Black," she said in a bored fashion.

The brunette gulped. "A-and I'm Hayden Smithers."

* * *

So . . . who was the person in the room? Who is the girl he is talking about? Will they be successful in killing Akatsuki? No way, right?

Stay tuned to the next installment. Review!

~Karin Taicho


	9. The New Girls

Hi! It's the ninth chapter! Now, there are two new girls. Those are the last two OCs to be introduced to this fanfiction. It doesn't mean that this will be over in just a few chapters. There are about seven more until I rewrite Connected Shippuden. So, without further ado, I will introduce the last two characters.

Tsuki Black

Age: 18

Characteristics: She has blue hair tied up in pigtails. Tsuki has one blue eye and one black eye. She always has headphones around her neck and an Akatsuki tattoo between her shoulder blades. She also has a metal fan strapped to her leg for defense purposes. Her body has many scars.

Personality: She is hyper and her mind is dirty most of the time. She has a very short temper and loves animals. She is allergic to sugary stuff.

History: Her drunk parents used to abuse her when she was young which explains the many scars she has. One day, she decided to confront them, but found them dead due to alcohol poisoning, but the police believed that she killed them, so she took her dog Hades, dyed her hair blue and left.

Hayden Smithers

Age: 18

Characteristics: She has shoulder length brown hair and eyes. She has a pale complexion.

Personality: She is somewhat sarcastic and a funny person. She is also kind towards others and would fight aggressively for what she believes in.

History: She wanted to start over again, so she moved from Tennessee to New York.

Enjoy the chapter!

* * *

Eiko's POV

I looked at the two girls in curiosity. It wasn't everyday that a transfer student was accepted, never mind two. And to top it off, they were in a senior class three months before graduation.

"Okay, then, tell us a little about yourselves," the teacher said. I almost face-faulted. Come on! We're not in preschool!

I noticed that Tsuki tensed up while Hayden said, "I came from Tennessee. I'm

eighteen years old and I live in Brooklyn on Dekalb Avenue."

Tsuki muttered something under her breath and said, "I have a dog named Hades

and my parents are dead."

I frowned. They're dead? Sighing, I looked at their hands to see two rings and the ring positions that are missing. They have Kakuzu and Kisame's rings.

I sighed. That only means more work for me. I yawned as History started and I started to doodle. After all, I don't get caught easily once I put up a genjutsu. It worked pretty well. The teacher thought that I was writing notes. She even walked around the classroom to glance at my "notes" a couple of times and applauded them.

I rolled my eyes and waited for school to end. It would take a while.

After school, I walked up to the two, who were walking towards the subway station. "Hey, you two," I said.

They turned around rapidly.

"We have names, you know?" Tsuki said.

"Yeah yeah, Tsuki and Hayden, right? Have you two been, feeling strange lately?"

I asked.

"Um, I don't think that we have headaches right now, thanks, though," Hayden said.

I frowned, "Wait, I should rephrase this. Those rings . . . where did you get them?"

"Huh, you're a fan of Naruto, too? I got it at the Brooklyn Mall," Hayden said.

"Me too," said Tsuki, "But why do you ask?"

"Cause, I need to show you something," I said like it was the best excuse in the world.

"What are you going to show us?" asked Tsuki. I guess she doesn't fully trust me yet. That's understandable because I've only talked to them for about a minute.

"Hm, keep this a secret. The Akatsuki are at my friend's house and we really need people with Kisame and Kakuzu's rings," I said. They nodded uncertainly.

"Well, then come on!" I said. I saw Rita and Hikari waiting for me outside. They looked around because I wasn't there yet. Normally, I was the first person out.

"Hey, what took you so long, Eiko?" Rita said. Hikari just waved.

"I got them," I said and they nodded. We started leading the girls towards our houses.

"Now, we can go to their world, can't we?" Hikari asked leaving the new girls confused.

"What do you mean, their world?" Tsuki asked. Hayden nodded in agreement to the blue haired girl.

"The Akatsuki's. You may think we sound mentally retarded, but it's fine. You'll see," I said.

Rita said, "Actually, Itachi-san's making a jutsu, so we can't go, yet."

Hayden said, "So, they're doing a cosplay group? I'm sorry, but I'm saving my money for college."

"No, we're not, um" Hikari said uncertainly. She didn't know her name.

"Hayden Smithers," the brown haired girl said.

"We're not cosplayers. They're the real thing, Hayden!" Hikari exclaimed. Hayden and Tsuki raised an eyebrow, but continued walking.

Once we reached Hikari's house, we opened the door to find everything trashed and some blood on the walls. Rita sighed as she walked out followed by Hikari. I looked back to see Hayden shaking a little and Tsuki reaching for the thing strapped on her leg. I paled when I realized it was a fan with an extremely sharp blade.

"Where are you going?" I asked Hikari and Rita.

"Supermarket," they replied, a little scared. I shrugged as they walked out on us.

"Uhh, come in guys," I said. They walked in slowly. Tobi was bouncing off the walls while Hidan was chasing a laughing Deidara and Itachi with his newly- purchased sword while Kakuzu was repeatedly stabbing Hidan. Wait, a laughing Itachi? And how the hell was Hidan running when he was being stabbed? I looked with wide eyes as Zetsu was trying to eat Kisame, who was running around the room screaming. Sasori was sleeping on the sofa when Kisame jumped on him.

"Shit!" he screamed and got up. I looked at him. Though his hair was messy, probably from bed head, he seemed like the only sane one at the moment. I walked in to the kitchen with Tsuki and Hayden tailing behind me to see Emi and Sayuri cleaning beer bottles. Emi probably got back only five minutes ago.

"Sayuri, what the hell is going on here?" I demanded pointing at the happy Itachi in the living room.

"They found the beer," she murmured and I face palmed. Oh great!

"Where's Kyoko and Heather?" I asked.

"At the fucking supermarket," Emi said. Odd, they were at the supermarket while Sayuri and Emi had to handle some drunk idiots?

"What? Rita and Hikari just started to go there!"

"Who're they?" Sayuri asked pointing to Hayden and Tsuki.

"I'm Tsuki Black," the bluenette said.

"And I'm Hayden Smithers," Hayden said.

"She has Kisame's ring and the other has Kakuzu's. Try to teach her how to use it. I'm going to get those two bastards. I'll get Rita and Hikari to go come back. When Rita comes in, tell her to knock them out," I said. After all, Rita was the strongest out of us for all we know. "And tell Hikari to restrain them first. I don't think Sasori is drunk, though," I said.

"Hn," she nodded.

"I'll get hangover pills. Okay then, Tsuki, Hayden, meet Sayuri and Emi. Sayuri will tell you how to use your powers," I said to the confused girl.

"What powers?" she asked, but I was already gone.

* * *

Tsuki's POV

I turned to face the stoic black-haired girl in front of me. "Hi, what was she talking about?"

"Akatsuki came here for recruits. You are one of them. You have Kisame's ring, so I'll teach you some water jutsu if I can and Hayden, you will be learning Kakuzu's forbidden techniques. Wait here. Please clean up some bottles," she said as she went up leaving me dumbfounded. What the hell? Hayden, Emi, and I picked up some glass bottles and placed them in the trashcan until they were all clean. Sayuri came down with a laptop.

"Why are you bringing a laptop?" Hayden asked raising an eyebrow.

"I don't know any water jutsu yet, so I'll teach you through the computer to check. Come with me," she said as she walked towards the backyard. Once we got outside, she set the computer down on the picnic table.

"First, we'll do the water wall jutsu first to see if you can do water jutsu," she said. I nodded and looked at the website.

"Do you think it will work?" Hayden asked me.

I shrugged my shoulders.

I already knew the hand signs, so I attempted them.

"Let's see water wall jutsu, Tiger, Serpent, Tiger," I muttered as I did the hand signs facing away from the computer and the Sayuri-girl. I didn't believe her. Who the hell has chakra in this world anyways? I sighed as somehow a water wall popped out of nowhere. I widened my eyes. I did it!

"Wow, you did it, Tsuki!" Hayden said. I nodded.

Emi and Sayuri looked amused. "Good job, now try something else," Sayuri said. I nodded and scanned the page for the water dragon jutsu. I smiled when I found it.

Facing away, I did the hand seals. Ox, Monkey, Rabbit, Rat, Boar, Bird, Ox, Horse, Bird, Tiger, Dog, Tiger, Snake, Ox, Sheep, Snake, Pig, Sheep, Ox, Monkey, Bird, Dragon, Ox, Horse, Sheep, Tiger, Snake, Rat, Ox, Monkey, Bird, Rat, Boar, Monkey, Dragon, Bird, Ox, Horse, Sheep, Tiger, Snake, Rat, Monkey, Rabbit, Boar, Dragon, Ox, Rat, Ox, Monkey, Bird, Rat, Boar, Bird. "Suiton: Suiryuudan no Jutsu!" I said as a water dragon came out of the ground.

"Wow, a B-ranked jutsu!" Hayden exclaimed.

"Good, it's your turn, Hayden," said Sayuri turning to the brown-haired girl. She nodded and took a look at the computer until she found a jutsu she wanted to do. Standing back, she did the Snake sign.

"Doton: Domu no Jutsu!" she said trying to do an Earth style jutsu.

When she did the jutsu, her skin turned dark. To test the strength, I punched her arm and flinched. It was like punching a wall. Hayden smiled and released the jutsu.

"I actually did it!" she said.

"Good job, Hayden," Sayuri said. "Now, when we get back to the Narutoverse, Kakuzu might get you some hearts." Hayden nodded nervously.

I turned to the blonde. "Can you do jutsu?"

She shook her head. "I don't have a ring, but they allowed me to go with them later on. They said that I had chakra, but didn't have the ring. I'm just working on taijutsu and kenjutsu for now."

I nodded in understanding.

"Let's get back," Sayuri said. When we did, we saw the two girls from before, I think they were Hikari and Rita. "Eiko told you guys to restrain the guys and knock them out."

"Okay," they said. We heard noises outside and Sasori scream, "What the fuck are you doing?"

Sayuri's eyes widened a little, "Guys," she called out, "Sasori's not drunk!"

Hayden and I laughed. Poor Sasori. Seconds later, Rita came in. "Couldn't you have told us earlier? Now Hikari feels bad . . . again!" she said.

"Sorry," Sayuri muttered as she went to the living room to see Hikari curled up on the sofa. Sasori was rubbing his sore head and trying to comfort her.

"Hikari, it's not your fault, Eiko told you guys to do that. You didn't know if I was drunk or not," Sasori said.

"Hey it's my fault. I forgot," Sayuri said. She patted Hikari on the head. "Come on, cheer up. It's not like he's angry at you." Sayuri sure acted differently around the people she knows. I guess she isn't just an unemotional person. Hikari nodded.

"You two better explain why you left Sayuri all alone in the house!" I heard Eiko scream. My eyes widened.

"Since when did she get in here?" I asked Rita.

"She has creepy plant man's ring. She can go through walls so that no noises are heard," Rita explained. I nodded. I looked in the hallway to see a girl with black shoulder-length hair with red bangs covering her left eye. The other girl had messy black hair and blue eyes.

"Hehe, I just wanted some pocky," the messy black-haired girl said scratching the back of her head.

"She doesn't have a car," the girl with the red bangs said.

"But she was alone in the house! With drunk idiots! You could have at least taught Sasori how to drive," Eiko said.

"But don't you remember, he has no driver's license and he looks even younger than us!" the black-haired girl whined. Eiko face palmed.

"Whatever, guys come on. We have all of the new members now. Heather and Kyoko, meet Tsuki and Hayden," Eiko said. We waved at each other.

"I'm Heather," said the messy-haired girl, "and I have Tobi's ring." Poor girl. She has Madara's ring.

"I'm Kyoko," the red banged-girl said, "and I have Deidara's ring and— wait a minute, Eiko, you're younger than me, why were you the one scolding me?"

"No reason." We all sweat dropped.

"I'm Hayden and I have Kakuzu's ring."

"And I'm Tsuki and I have Kisame's ring," I said.

"Oh yeah, and I have Zetsu's ring, Sayuri has Itachi's ring, Hikari has Sasori's ring, and Rita has Hidan's ring," Eiko said. I nodded.

I heard a few groans coming from the ground and I saw all of the drunk Akatsuki rubbing their heads. I never knew that Itachi could get drunk. It was awkward.

"Tobi doesn't feel good," Tobi said, slurring his words so that he was incomprehensible.

"It's because you got a hangover," Heather said popping a hangover pill in Tobi's mouth after lifting up part of the mask.

"Stupid bitch, you made a mess everywhere. You're cleaning," Rita said popping a pill in the silver-haired Jashinist's mouth.

"Fuck that," he grumbled.

"Never thought you could get drunk," Sayuri said as she walked towards Itachi, but tripped over Hidan's leg. "Eek!" she screamed as she fell on to Itachi's lap. "S-sorry, Itachi," she said obviously flustered. I guess she was clumsy. She gave Itachi a pill which he put into his mouth.

"Hn," he said. Did I see a little pink strip along his face?

Hayden grabbed a pill from Kyoko's bag and gave one to Kisame who said, "Who the hell are you?"

"I'm Tsuki and I have your ring!" I said in a fake happy tone while smiling sweetly at him. He gulped down the pill and blanched. I blushed a little and walked away.

Hayden looked nervous when she gave the stitched man a pill. "How much does it cost?" he asked. Typical Kakuzu.

"I don't know, but I bet it costs little," Hayden said.

He took the pill and ate it. About an hour later, they were back to their original state, whatever that was. Since it was late, we decided to stay at Hikari's house that day. Still, I wonder why I blushed at the shark man. It was odd.

* * *

I didn't really like this chapter and it was short compared to the others. Review anyways!

~Karin Taicho


	10. The First Move

Okay, now this fanfiction has reached double digits! This is the tenth chapter of the Connected rewrite! Enjoy the chapter! Yes, there is fluffy stuff.

* * *

A month has passed after Tsuki and Hayden were accepted into Akatsuki. It was also a month after the mystery person was aiming for a specific girl in the Akatsuki.

* * *

Rita's POV

I sighed as I sat down in history class. Since Sayuri, the Akatsuki started to be extra careful around us. They walked with us to and from school, even for Emi. Her guards switched between Deidara and Sasori every day.

It wouldn't be a surprise if they actually broke into school one day.

We were on our unit about the Roman Empire and blah blah boring stuff. I looked at Hikari from the corner of my eye and saw her drawing, which of course made me want to draw, too. Quietly, I took out my sketch pad. Now, I wasn't a good drawer nor was I terrible, but I really needed drawing lessons from Heather. Not paying attention to anything, I started to sketch some random stuff. After I was done, I took a good look at it: Hidan. Damn, why in Jashin was that idiot always in my thoughts?

I shook my head and looked up to see the teacher still talking. I turned to a new page and tried to think of something else in stead of drawing randomly. Just then, something I knew would happen sooner or later happened.

A specific silver-haired guy entered the room. "Where in Jashin is that purple-haired bitch at?" I knew it! They broke in! I twitched when he called me that. Bastard, he'll get it, all right.

"Mister, please leave the room and refrain from using such profanities in my classroom," Mr. Humphrey said.

"I'm looking for Rita and Hikari. Where are they?" Hidan asked.

"Oh my Jashin! You didn't curse!" I exclaimed. Hikari widened her eyes from next to me.

He twitched and said, "I don't have to curse in every fucking sentence, you know? Gosh, Tobi broke down a damn wall. Stupid lollipop," he swore.

"Excuse me sir, but you must be a parent or guardian to pick up the girls," Mr. Humphrey said.

"Yo, Itachi get your fat ass in here!" Hidan screamed towards the hallway.

The silent Uchiha came in after a moment of waiting. "What?" he asked.

"Do something about this!" Hidan commanded. Itachi rolled his eyes.

The class looked in horror as Itachi used Sharingan on them. Mr. Humphrey let us go willingly. Hikari laughed. "Itachi-san, how did Tobi break the wall?" Hikari asked.

"Tobi was chasing around Deidara and somehow broke the wall when Deidara ducked at the last moment," Itachi explained. Hikari nodded in understanding and we walked over to where the two were.

"Come on let's go. That old geezer's getting on my nerves," Hidan said. I laughed and gave him a high five.

"Boy, I haven't ever been this glad to see you. Man, he was so boring that I drew for about the whole class!" I exclaimed.

"Really, what about?" Hidan asked.

I turned a bright shade of red and stuttered, "N-nothing important," I said.

As the dense person Hidan is, he didn't notice me blushing to my relief. We just walked outside the school, not caring about the incredulous looks the other teachers gave us. We didn't get Eiko, Tsuki, and Hayden from their senior class.

We were in an alleyway when a shot rang out. I felt a pain in my head and I saw red. I fell on the floor with a thud, still conscious because of my immortality.

"What the—fuck Rita wake up!" I heard Hidan yell. He sounded . . . worried? But he knew that I wouldn't die. Blood was coming out of my head even faster than any wound I've ever gotten.

"No, Rita!" I heard Hikari scream. Oh yeah, she didn't know that I was immortal. But, who the fuck shot me?

"S-shit that hurt," I groaned as I tried to sit up, but my legs were heavy and I fell back. Hidan and Hikari rushed over while Itachi was still scanning the area.

"Hey, you good?" Hidan asked. I could swear that I saw worry in his violet eyes. I couldn't help but stare into them.

"Hurts like fuck. I won't stab you anymore. This makes me feel like I want to die!" I said. Hikari looked into my eyes.

"Rita, you're alive!" Hikari exclaimed and hugged me. Itachi only had a surprised expression on his face. It looked so funny.

"Of course," I said. I coughed out blood and said, "I'm immortal."

Hikari nodded and looked around for the gunman along with Itachi. She saw a glint, but it was too late to attach any chakra strings. The gun fired and my best friend tried to move out of the way, but the bullet hit her shoulder.

I heard her scream and I immediately shot up. No one was going to hurt my friend and get away with it. Hidan restrained me. "Damn it Hidan, let me go!"

"Shut the fuck up! Hikari's going to handle this!"

Meanwhile, the gunman looked scared when he saw me. Didn't he just shoot me through my head? 'She's a monster!' he probably thought. He then felt something odd and him jumping off a building. He landed on the floor without getting hurt. Amazed, he looked at the teenagers, or so he thought. Hidan and Itachi were most definitely not teenagers.

Hikari controlled the man's body movements. "What's happened to me? I can't move. You're monsters!" he exclaimed. Itachi frowned. Monsters?

"Shut up and talk. Who hired you?" Itachi asked.

The man didn't answer, so Itachi activated his Sharigan for a second time in the day. "H-he's Issac Edwards," the man said.

I felt my heart stop and I opened my eyes wide. Hidan noticed and said, "You know that bitch, Rita?"

I nodded. "He's my father . . . he's still after me," I whispered. I felt something wet trailing down my face. I was crying? I haven't cried since . . . since forever. I felt Hidan's arms around me tighter. Somehow, I felt so safe there in his arms. Even though he's a mass murderer and we're both drenched in my blood.

"Hi-Hidan," I muttered.

"Yeah?" he asked.

"Thank you, for being here," I muttered.

"Hm."

We turned to see the man lying fainted on the floor and Hikari clutching her arm. She looked a little feverish. I ripped a piece of cloth off Hidan, who didn't care, and ran towards her to bandage it.

"Come on, we have to go," I said. Hidan and Itachi nodded and grabbed the both of us and shunshined away.

When we got in front of our house, I took my key out and opened the door. Itachi ran in carrying Hikari. Sasori ran close behind.

"What the fuck happened to you two?" he asked angrily. Aww, it meant that he cared about Hikari. If I wasn't being chased by my father, I would have voiced my opinion about his question.

"My father's henchmen. He's after me again. I should just leave. They're going to hurt you guys if you're friends with me," I muttered instead.

"No, we're your friends. And we're the Akatsuki. There's nothing we can't do," he said. "I'll get Kakuzu." I nodded as he went to get the stitched man. Hikari was in her room. Itachi was already in it, trying to calm her down.

"Hikari, I muttered as I took the seat next to her bed and held her hand. Itachi left to tell the others to hurry up.

"Hikari. I'm so sorry. It's my fault. He's targeting me, but because you're my friend, he wants to kill all of you, too. I know that he can't kill me, but that makes it even worse. I swear that the last thing I'll do in this world is sacrifice my father to Jashin," I said.

Hikari smiled, "It's okay, Rita! I'm getting sleepy," she said.

I nodded and she drifted into unconsciousness. Someone entered the room and I didn't look up. I felt arms wrapping themselves around me. I could feel someone's breath on my neck and I could smell blood.

"Hidan," I said. I knew it was him. Who else smelled of blood besides Itachi? I knew that he wouldn't do that.

"Yeah?" I heard his voice.

"Why are you're arms around me like that?" I asked blushing.

"Aww, you're blushing, how fucking cute!" Hidan said voicing his opinion.

I blushed even more. He thought I was cute? I sure thought that I wasn't especially in blood. Sigh, the sudden lack of self esteem.

He played around with my hair and I got a little uncomfortable. "Hidan can you stop?" I asked.

"Why?" he asked.

"I don't feel comfortable and my head hurts," I complained. He frowned and then kissed my forehead. I blushed even harder. Sheesh, how many times am I going to blush?

"H-Hidan," I said. "You know, my father. If he knows that you're my friend, he's going to try to kill you and other Akatsuki because you're my friends." I changed the topic.

"What of it? We don't die easily. And am I only a friend to you?" he asked teasingly.

"You're a good friend, but you guys are in danger," I said suddenly worried.

"Well, that's what friends are for," he said. "I just found out something," Hidan said after thinking for a little while.

"W-what?"

"That even though I knew you are immortal like me, I still felt worried," he said.

"And?"

"And that I love you, bitch," he said. Before I could even say anything, he spun me around and slammed me against the wall. "So I won't ever leave you behind."

I was so shocked. The cursing silver haired Jashinst loved me? Who would ever believe that? Before I said anything, I felt something cool on my lips. Hidan was kissing me aggressively. I hesitated, but then started to kiss him back. My head didn't hurt anymore. By now, it was healing on my own. I wrapped my arms around neck.

"I love you, too Hidan," I said after we separated.

He smirked and said, "I knew it."

He started kissing my neck and went down. "H-Hidan stop! We need to get help for Hikari," I said breaking out of his grasp.

He frowned, but joined me in opening the door. As expected, Kakuzu and Sasori came in. Sasori put down the cloth and disinfected the equipment. Kakuzu took the tweezers and took the bullet out and studied it. Sasori said that there wasn't any poison in it. Kakuzu stitched Hikari's wound back together and explained that she needed a blood transfusion because of her loss of blood.

"What's her blood type?" Kakuzu asked.

"AB," I told the masked man.

Sasori volunteered. "I'm also AB," he muttered. Kakuzu nodded and took out the sterilized needles and transfused blood from Hikari to Sasori.

I breathed in relief that Hikari was okay. I turned to see Hidan looking at me, so I went to talk to him.

* * *

Hikari's POV

I opened my eyes slightly before opening hem all the way. It was dark, but I have good night time vision. Once my eyes got adjusted I found myself looking at a sleeping Sasori next to me and blushed. I noticed a needle connecting me to him. So he was giving me a blood transfusion. I looked at him again.

He was so peaceful sleeping like that. I brushed a strand of hair away and looked at him until he woke up.

"Hm, Hikari, you're awake?" he asked. I blushed and nodded. "Hm, don't scare me like that 'kay?" I nodded again. "Good job controlling that bastard."

I blushed. He was proud of me. "I'll go get you some breakfast," he muttered as he got up and removed the needles. He gave me a band aid and gave me a kiss on it which made my cheeks flare up.

"Boo-boos need kisses don't they?" he asked. I twitched and he walked outside the door. A second later, Eiko, Emi, Heather, and Kyoko burst through the door.

"Hey, Hikari, you okay, did that bastard do anything else?" Eiko asked.

Heather touched me and gasped. "You okay?"

Kyoko looked worried. "Hikari, be careful next time!"

"I was so worried!" Emi exclaimed.

I geared up a little. "Thanks guys. I'm okay. I'll definitely be more careful next time!"

"Anyways," Eiko said. "Hayden and Tsuki are coming over. They were at their homes before."

"And, guess what?" Heather asked.

"What?"

"Hidan is dating Rita," said Sayuri coming into the room. "Are you okay? The bastard didn't hurt you that bad right?"

I nodded. Lately, Sayuri has been more open to us, but it's a matter of time before her parents find out she's here. They most likely saw the puppet already. That's why she's staying at Eiko's place and she threw away her phone.

I stopped. What? Hidan and Rita are dating? That's so sweet! I pictured Rita sitting on his lap and squealed.

"That's so cute!" I squealed. There was a knock on the door and Sasori entered with some pancakes.

"After you eat, we're going to have a meeting," he said. We nodded.

After I ate, everybody gathered at the living room. Everybody was quiet except Tobi. Tsuki and Hayden were able to come on time.

"Silence!" Sasori said. Tobi immediately jumped and stayed quiet. "We are having an important meeting right now in regards of Rita's father. Tell us about him," Sasori said.

Rita looked down, but Hidan's arms were around her, making her feel safer. "A-a long time ago, my f-father k-killed my mother a-and I ran away from him. H-he's out to get me, now, but since I can't die, he's targeting you guys just because you're my friends," Rita stuttered. I looked at Rita sadly with some tears coming out of my eyes. Her childhood had been even worse than mine. Sure I'm an orphan, but her father abandoned her and wanted her dead.

Sniffing a little, I went over and hugged my best friend. Some tears trailed down her face, but she was alright.

"So, what do we do? Can we eat her father?" Zetsu asked.

Rita nodded. "After I sacrifice that bitch to Jashin!"

Hidan laughed. "That's the spirit!"

"What about his henchmen?" Emi asked.

Heather said, "I guess we have to kill them."

"No, we have to find their base first, un. We don't know when the father's going to strike, un," he said.

"That's the most intelligent thing I heard you say today," Kyoko said, earning a light punch to the head. She sat on the couch with anime tears threatening to fall out.

"Well, how do we plan on doing that?" Tsuki asked.

"That's what the Sharingan's for," Sayuri said. Heather smiled in agreement.

"Hm, how are we going to break in?" Hayden asked.

"The same way as last time, but with everybody," Itachi said.

"Last time?" Tsuki echoed curiously.

"When we were saving Sayuri from her parents, we went on Deidara's bird. Some of us were on lookout while the rest of us went in," I said.

"Except this time, we don't need lookout because in there, everyone's our enemy," Eiko reminded us.

We nodded. "How many fucking henchmen does your asshole father have anyways?" Hidan asked Rita.

"A lot," Rita said. "Though I'm just guessing."

"Well, we need equipment," Kisame said. "Lots of weapons and stuff."

"Tobi doesn't understand!" Tobi cried.

"You don't have to, un!" said the blonde bomber who was bashing poor Madara on the head. He looked a little wary about doing that, though.

"Kakuzu," we all said looking at him expectantly.

"Fine, I'll pay for your goddamned equipment!" Kakuzu cried. The masked man was angry for having to pay so much.

"I'll pay for some, too," Hayden suggested kindly.

"Thank you," Kakuzu said. "Unlike those guys, you're willing to support us in charity. Your help is gladly appreciated."

"Charity my ass! Eiko, Emi, Hikari, and I paid for you guys to live here!" Rita said to Kakuzu.

"Ungrateful bastard," Heather muttered.

Eiko looked like she could care less about what Kakuzu said. It's not like it matters anymore, though. When we go to their world, we wouldn't be using anymore dollars. We'll be using their currency instead.

"Anyways," Sasori said. "We need to protect you guys at all times."

I said, "We're not defenseless!" I really didn't like being weak all the time. After I got shot on my shoulder, all I've been getting are questions like "are you okay?" I'm fine!

"We care about you guys more than you think, yeah!" Deidara said.

"I'm finally agreeing with that gay blonde," Hidan muttered.

"I'm not gay, un!"

"Never mind that, how do you think that you guys plan on protecting us?" Eiko asked.

"We go to your school. It's only logical," Sasori commented putting his arm on the table.

"And how do you guys plan on getting in to our school in the middle of the school year?" Tsuki asked.

"Tobi has an idea! Tobi and friends can turn into cats!" Tobi said.

Hayden asked, "Cats? There are no cats allowed in school and how do you plan in doing that?

Heather said, "Yeah, only Pain-in-the-ass would be able to do something like this."

"Leader-sama can, un?" Deidara asked surprised.

Heather sweat dropped. "Um, just a guess."

"Well, when they first arrived to our world, they were cats, but when they were out in warm water, they turned human," Emi said. "Maybe they'll turn back to cats in another condition."

"But there aren't pets allowed in school?" Heather asked.

"Oh, that's true," Kyoko said.

Tsuki pouted, "But they must have been so cute!"

"I wasn't cute you little—" Hidan was cut off by Rita covering his mouth.

"We'll enroll in your school," Itachi said.

"WHAT?" Rita screamed uncovering Hidan's mouth. A string of colorful language came out of his mouth and Heather had an anger mark on her head.

"Shut up!" she yelled.

"How do you plan on doing that?" Sayuri asked the Uchiha, ignoring Rita's outburst and Hidan's cursing.

"Sharingan always works," Itachi commented and Sayuri nodded slowly.

"B-but you guys will probably fail! Especially history class!" Rita exclaimed. "You don't even know who George Washington is!"

"The dude on the quarter," Kakuzu said.

"Besides that," Emi groaned. "He's the first president."

"President?" Deidara asked.

"Never mind."

"History?" Sasori asked. I groaned as I was reminded of Mr. Humphrey giving us a pop quiz everyday. Luckily, that will end very soon.

"Yeah, that's true. You don't know a thing about this world's history and you'll flunk the course and probably get sent back to middle school or something," Heather said. "Even the first graders know who George Washington is."

"**We'll eat the teacher!** No we won't!" Zetsu argued with each other.

"I don't think Mr. Humphrey would like that," I said. However, I think that the entire class would like it very much.

"Anyways, you'll have a buffet after we're done with the henchmen," Eiko said.

"Point taken," White Zetsu said.

"Who gives a shit about flunking some stupid test? After this, Itachi should be done with the fucking jutsu!" Hidan said.

"And we can go back home," Sasori added.

"Aww, but this place is cool! Before we leave, at least take us to that Six Flags place you were talking about, Tsuki!" Kisame said.

Tsuki blushed a little and said, "Alright. We're coming with you guys back to the Narutoverse?"

"Of course," the blue shark said.

"Yes! I want to go to the Akatsuki base and see Pain-in-the-ass and Konan!" Heather exclaimed.

"Me too!" said Kyoko. "Although I think that Pein would dislike it if we call him that."

"It doesn't matter, we'll just bother them!" Tsuki said.

"Speaking of Pein-sama, do you think he knows we're here?" Sasori wondered.

"If we had left the Narutoverse, then our chakra signals would have disappeared, yeah," Deidara said.

"But if your chakra disappeared then," I started.

"Pein and Konan probably think that you guys are dead," Hayden finished.

Everybody was silent. Heather walked up and touched Zetsu's arm. "If you're up to about after Deidara fights Naruto, then right now should be about when," Heather's arm went slack. She turned to face us and looked down.

"Since we were here for about two months, then Pein should be-" Heather said sadly. I cast my eyes down and the girls became interested with their shoe size.

"Dead," Eiko finished after gulping.

Zetsu said, "How so you know that?"

"If two months passed in the Narutoverse since you were gone, Pein would have invaded Konoha and Naruto would have defeated him," Emi said.

"Stop thinking that way! If he thought you guys were dead, he probably wouldn't have gone yet!" Rita said to Emi.

"No, Pein-sama can't die by a stupid jinchuruki like him!" Deidara exclaimed.

"He didn't die. He sacrificed himself to revive Konoha," Tsuki muttered.

"What about Konan?" Kisame asked.

"She's not dead unless something unexpected happens. If Pein's dead, then she leaves Akatsuki," Hayden said.

"Cut the crap! I know that you're hiding something from us!" Hidan said.

Us girls looked at each other and nodded, "We're only hiding one thing from you: your deaths," I said.

* * *

Dundundundun! In the next chapter, the Akatsuki learn of their deaths . . . all of them. So, what are they going to do when they find out who kills Konan? Review! I would like to hear your feedback!

~Karin Taicho


	11. Unmasking the Beast

Welcome to the eleventh chapter of Connected rewrite! Sorry for the delay, but I was busy with Summer work. Working as a counselor for 4-5 year olds is hard as hell and tiring, too.

Last chapter, Hikari confessed that the girls hadn't told the Akatsuki everything that happened. So what's going to happen when the girls start talking about Akatsuki deaths?

Enjoy!

* * *

Hayden's POV

"We're only hiding one thing from you: your deaths," Hikari said looking at the floor in dismay.

"Our deaths, un?" Deidara asked confusedly.

"Tell us more," Sasori said in a demanding tone.

Shit, we're in big trouble. If this happens, it'll all lead down to Madara.

"W-well, Sasori, you know how you die. It's by Chiyo and S-Sakura," Hikari said.

He nodded. Rita turned to Hidan, "Well, luckily, you're not dead, but the stupid lazy Nara trapped you in a freaking cave and in the storyline you're supposed to be dying from lack of nutrition or some shit," she said.

"I should try that," Kakuzu muttered. Hidan shot a glare at him.

Eiko turned to Zetsu, "Well, you're one of the characters who don't die. Luckily," she said. "But most likely, you're going to have to die because you're all villains in Naruto," she said looking at the ground trying to sound as monotonous as possible, but failing.

Heather said, "You're alive, too." Tobi jumped up and down, waving his arms around and I flinched at this action.

"Tobi's alive! Tobi's alive!" he screamed.

"Shut up, Tobi!" Heather said. All eyes locked onto her. Did she just yell at Tobi? I never knew she had it in her. She had been hell bent on being nice to Tobi and now she yells at him?

"You're still alive, but didn't you hear? You're just going to die sooner or later!" she said. Protecting Madara? I raised an eyebrow. But it was true because Madara is the evilest of the evilest character in Naruto.

"Itachi, Sasuke's going to kill you," Sayuri said slowly. Itachi nodded in understanding, but no shock crossed his face. I already knew his reaction . . . happiness.

"Good, I knew that he was going to kill me," he said simply. Akatsuki looked at him like he was crazy.

"What? Itachi you can't be for real right?" Kisame asked with his eyes wide with shock. "That's basically suicide!"

"Kisame, _you_ c-committed s-suicide," Tsuki said.

Kisame looked surprised. "Suicide? Me?"

"Yeah, you got captured and before the Konoha nins interrogated you, you broke free and trapped yourself in a water prison and let some sharks eat you," Tsuki said in a low voice.

Kisame looked grossed out.

"Don't be grossed out, at least you died in an honorable way. You did it to protect the Akatsuki," Rita said.

"D-Dei, you die by committing suicide, too. It was so fucking stupid!" Kyoko screamed. Hikari went to calm down the girl.

Deidara put an arm around her shoulders. "It's okay. Just tell me why, un," he said.

She nodded. "You were trying to kill Sasuke and self-destructed yourself. At the end, you thought that you killed him, but he escaped," she said.

I saw Itachi glare a little at Deidara, but then looked away.

"Oh, that's. . . Great, un," he not feeling so good. "But at least, I went out with a bang."

"Kakuzu," I said. He looked at me with his piercing eyes.

"What?" he asked.

"Naruto used Rasengan on you and then Kakashi killed you," I said without getting into many details.

He nodded. "Then, Pein and Konan?" he asked. I wondered if I should tell them. It wasn't a good story and there will be questions as to how Akatsuki is still alive and who the new leader is.

"Pein revived the people of Konoha and died," I said. "And Konan is also dead. She- I don't want to get into the details without permission," I muttered looking at Kyoko.

To be honest, after what I heard from Kyoko, Madara attacked her, so it won't be safe for me to tell them that Madara killed her because then it would be obvious that I know who Madara is.

"Was it too terrible?" Sasori asked blandly. He didn't seem to care, but he was confused. Konan was strong. And Pein committed suicide by helping the kyuubi?

I shook my head. "I can't tell. Can someone else?" I asked. I felt guilt at saying that because I know that someone was going to tell, and we'll all be in trouble. I clenched my fists until they turned white. I was scared.

I saw Heather stiffen out of the corner of my eye. I widened my eyes a little. She wasn't going to, right? She took a deep breath and I watched as she raised her hand to point at someone. She will also blow Tobi's cover. I felt a pang of guilt and I tried to stop her, but Eiko grabbed my arm and shook her head. I could only look at Heather.

Emi placed a hand on Heather's shoulder comfortingly as Heather was lifting her hand. She hadn't said anything in the whole conversation, but she was in as much pain as we were in.

Her finger stopped at Tobi. "You—you killed her," she said quietly. All of her previous energy was lost as she at the floor blankly.

Itachi and Zetsu's eyes widened. "Shit," the Zetsus muttered. The girls looked down as well as me, but Heather's finger was still pointing at Tobi. It was shaking.

"Tobi, you—" Deidara started.

"Tobi will never hurt Konan-chan!" Tobi said defensively. I saw his Sharingan blazing with anger. The tomoes were spinning rapidly and I wondered how he could keep up his Tobi persona while looking that menacing.

Anger boiled inside me. I knew that if I talked, I would get in trouble later, but I didn't care now. Heather was in trouble just because of me and my selfishness. "Shut up, Madara! You killed her, don't deny it!" I screamed. Heather looked in surprise at me, her hand falling to her side.

I didn't know what will happen next. Hopefully I wouldn't get killed by the wrath of Madara. Me and my big mouth!

"What's she talking about? Who's Madara?" Sasori asked confused.

Surprisingly enough, Tobi reached up for his mask . . . and took it off revealing his spiky black hair and Sharingan eyes.

Sasori, Kisame, Hidan, and Kakuzu looked surprised at 'Tobi's' face.

"I'm Madara," he said in his real low voice.

Deidara narrowed his eyes. He had already knew about Madara, but didn't think that it was that much important.

"Hey, you're being weird today, uh, Tobi," Kisame said, probably afraid of what the man would do as payback for hitting him on the head so many times.

"It's Madara," the Uchiha repeated.

"W-why did you blow your cover?" Hikari asked.

"Hm, so you know, too. Tsk Tsk Tsk. No wonder Pein told me to be careful," Madara said.

"I thought you didn't take any orders," Tsuki said getting in a defensive mode with her hand reaching for the fan strapped on her leg.

"I was merely taking his advice," Madara replied.

Rita pushed Hikari back and spread her arms to protect her. Her eyes were staring right into Madara's.

Sasori asked, "What's wrong?"

"He's the true leader of Akatsuki," Kyoko muttered taking out a scroll and taking out a sword.

Sayuri said, "I knew this would happen sooner or later."

"Of course," Madara said. "I wouldn't do anything to hurt you. I'll make it fast."

Itachi's Sharingan flashed as both Uchihas moved quickly. Itachi putting himself in front of Sayuri before Madara could strike her. It hit Itachi, instead on the stomach.

"Itachi!" Sayuri cried out and ran next to Itachi.

"Stop it, Madara," he muttered. "Sayuri, stay back." He coughed out some blood.

Sayuri shook her head and stayed where she was.

"You heard the girl, Itachi. I don't take orders," Madara said. Before I knew it, Rita was next to Madara and jabbed her knife at his head, but it went through.

"Shit!" she said as he moved behind her and stabbed her. She fell onto Hidan who gently placed her on the floor.

His angry violet eyes looked at Madara's Sharingan. "Why the fuck are you doing this, Madara or whoever the hell you are?"

"Since they know my secret, I don't think that they should live. They'll only ruin my plans," Madara said.

"Well," Sasori said moving in front of Madara, "If you wish to kill them, you have to go through us first."

"This is fucking unreasonable, Madara, un! They are going to join Akatsuki anyways, un. Why kill them, yeah?" Deidara asked.

Madara ignored Deidara and ran toward Tsuki while dodging Sasori's punch. Frowning, she got into battle stance and blocked and attacked Madara with her fan. Kisame took another sword from Kyoko and attacked Madara, who kicked Tsuki into the wall. Emi then started attacking with her limited taijutsu and was kicked back easily exactly where Tsuki was.

I ran to the wall where they were. Luckily, Tsuki was only unconscious and Emi was not badly hurt. Heather stood next to me shaking. "Heather," I said. She was shaking, but there was no fear on her face. Only anger and . . . sadness?

When Madara was about to stab Kyoko, Heather got in front and got stabbed instead. "H-Heather," Kyoko said. Madara's face showed some confusion while trying to pull the sword out, but Heather held it in place.

"G-guys, run away," Heather said coughing out blood. I was frozen. Heather just intercepted the blade.

"No, we can't run away! We're your friends!" Eiko said. "Nothing's going to stop us!"

"Why?" she asked.

"That's what friends are for," I said smling, getting over my shock.

Madara got the sword out of Heather, who didn't scream in agony, but bit her lip. He swung the sword at Eiko, but stopped when he heard Heather scream, "Stop it, Madara!"

* * *

Madara's POV

I stabbed Heather my eyes widened. She could have just let it pass through her, but she was willing to take the blade for a friend. And what was this feeling in my chest? This girl is interesting. After I pulled the sword out of the girl to stab the one with the blue extensions, I heard Heather scream, "Stop it, Madara!"

To my surprise, I actually stopped midway, my eyes wide open. Sweat dripped from my forehead. Why was I stopping? What was this girl doing to me?

I looked behind me to see her looking at me with an angered expression on her face, but I could see the hurt and pain in her eyes. For some reason, my heart felt like it was about to explode.

Stop it Madara, kill them! I turned my head around and swung at the girl again, but she sunk into the ground. And I felt a blow to my head.

I widened my eyes again. I let my guard down. I turned to see Heather about to punch me again, but I dodged.

"How do you still have strength to move?" I asked. Behind her, I saw the black-haired girl controlling her. I charged at that girl managing to dodge attacks from Heather because she was able to hurt me. If I managed to take out the black-haired girl, then Heather wouldn't be able to battle me anymore.

However, Heather punched me in the gut and to everyone's surprise, sent me hurtling into a wall. Struggling to get out, she walked up to me and grabbed me by the collar.

"Uchiha, I told you to fucking stop!" she said. I looked into her eyes and saw the Sharingan. So she got it, too?

"I don't listen to anybody. Not even you. You are very interesting, little girl. To stand up to me without feeling fear, it's interesting," I said.

"No," she said. "I am scared. But even though I am, I am able to stand up to you because you are hurting my friends," she said starting to shake.

I frowned. There was this feeling in my chest again. No, I can't be falling for this weak girl. I had the urge to hug her, but I didn't. The girl let me go and collapsed to the floor. I looked at the black-haired girl who was controlling her. Jumping over Heather, I swung my fist at the girl, but she was pulled across the room by Sasori. I narrowed my eyes and went for that Sayuri girl instead. Since Itachi was down, it would be easier for me to get her. However, she also had Sharingan and dodged my attacks. I passed by the brown-haired girl and attacked her instead.

She immediately flew back against a wall, much to Kakuzu's dislike and emerged out in black. "Daiton: Domu no Jutsu," she said. Kakuzu took a deep breath and did his Domu jutsu as well. Both took swings at me as I dodged. This made things harder. Not only are they faster and stronger, they have higher defense.

Actually, why am I even dodging? I sweatdropped as I stopped dodging and their attacks passed right through me. I still had two more minutes left until I am tangible. Then, I would bring the girl inside my world to ask her some questions.

Two minutes passed and I started dodging the attacks from the Akatsuki. Heather was in a fighting stance. I reached of and grabbed her arm, putting her and myself in my inner world.

"Where? Where in the world am I?" she asked and saw me and got in a fighting stance.

"You're in my world. I took you here," I said.

She frowned. "Why me?"

"Because I need to ask you a few questions," I said. "First of all, why are you so different from your other friends? Why did you point me out? You could have just stayed there and pretended that you didn't know my secret."

"That would be lying because I have touched you before and knew all about your past. I'm not any different from my friends. I protected them because I knew that they would do the same for me," she said. I nodded slowly.

"Did you think that was wise? You could have gotten yourself killed," I said shuddering a little at the image of her dead in my head.

Luckily, she didn't notice. "What, worried about me now? It's not like you care. You were going to kill me anyways," she said.

"No, I didn't plan on killing you. You are my apprentice, after all. If I was going to kill you, I would have done it when you were in your weakened state. You deserve to know my identity and I honestly don't think that you would agree to be the apprentice of someone like Tobi," I said lying. The truth is, I didn't want her to die. It was confusing. Maybe this girl was changing me.

"Yeah right, Madara," she said. "I just want to protect my friends like my father protected me." She looked at the floor.

"Your father?" I asked slowly.

She laughed. "I don't even know why I'm telling you all of this!" some tears flowed freely down her face. Her clouded blue eyes were covered by her hair. "I-I'll tell you anyways. Five years ago, my mother started hating me because of my powers. She thought I was a witch or something and started beating me, but my father protected me. After he died, she blamed it on me and I ran away this year because I couldn't take it anymore. I miss my father so much," she cried.

Without thinking, I hugged her frail body, pulling her to me. She gasped as I wiped away her tears. "Why are you helping me?" she asked. Her blue eyes were showing confusion. I was confused as well, but ignored it.

"I don't know, but it's okay. Your mother isn't here anymore. You ran away, right? It's time to go back now," I said getting up. "You're an interesting girl. I'm not going to hurt your friends as long as they keep my identity a secret in our world." She nodded and I held my hand out for her to grab. She took it and stood up. I performed some handsigns and grabbed her arm.

A second later, we were on earth with swords pointed at me. I didn't move. "Guys, he's not going to hurt you anymore as long as you guys don't reveal his identity in the Narutoverse," Heather said. "And you better not kill Konan, got it?"

I nodded slowly. "Good," she said. The others looked dumbfounded.

"Y-you got him to change his mind," Itachi muttered.

"Yep!" she said. She really is interesting. The way her behavior changes so fast.

"Whatever," I said.

"So, you're not going to have that mask on, now?" Sasori asked.

"I'm going to put my mask back on when we go back but I should stay like this longer. I've spent too much time acting like Tobi," Madara said.

Deidara said, "At least you're not going to be annoying me anytime soon." I twitched.

"I'm not going to do anything to you yet, Deidara-sempai," he sneered.

"Whatever, yeah," he said.

"Well, now that that's taken care of, we can go to the supermarket to get some food. We're running out of Pop Tarts and other food. We can't be ordering McDonald's everyday, ne?" Hikari said.

"Fine, let's get going then," I grumbled.

"I'm going to have to get used to this," Sasori said looking at me as we started walking to the door.

* * *

I didn't really like this chapter. The ending seemed anticlimatic and it sucked. Well, enjoy and review!

~Karin Taicho


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